As you learned from my recent blog posts about our latest releases Fruit Belly and The Primal Prescription, things are cranking up in the Primal Blueprint Publishing world. Over the past couple of years, we took a bit of a respite from our usual pace of releasing titles to focus on some big internal projects, namely the Primal Blueprint Expert Certification program, the Don’t Just Sit There program, and the Primal Endurance book, which Brad Kearns and I have been hard at work on for the past two years.
In Primal Endurance, we return to our roots and introduce endurance athletes to the familiar Primal Blueprint principles of becoming stress balanced and fat adapted. Release date is early January, but I wanted to show you a sneak preview of the beautiful cover, created by our artistic grandmaster Janée Meadows and shot at the famous Malibu sand dune by Leslie Klenke (content details follow).
After a few years of frustration and false starts, Carrie has finally found her true and authentic voice and has nearly completed the manuscript for Primal Woman. Carrie explains the numerous project delays: “I’m not a writer, but I was trying to be one, or trying to outsource parts of the process that really shouldn’t be! One day at lunch with Mark and Brad, I revealed that I was at my wits’ end and about to completely give up. They reminded me that my gift is storytelling, finding meaning in the ordinary moments, bringing inspirational quotes into daily life, and transferring inspiration into action through my training in life coaching and spiritual psychology. Can you guess where this is going? That’s right—I junked the book writing fundamentals of chapters and a patterned narrative and decided to just start telling stories! So Primal Woman is a collection of stories with life lessons and even actionable steps at the end to formulate intentions and manifest them in your daily life.”
We actually have a whopping ten books in our development pipeline right now. Here’s a quick overview of what’s coming and when. And at the end of the post, I have an important message for the real bookies out there who want to go the extra mile and read and publish thoughtful reviews on Amazon.com and elsewhere.
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anuary 11: Primal Endurance, by Mark Sisson and Brad Kearns. Slow down, balance out, chill out, eat primally, introduce high-intensity strength and sprint workouts, and integrate complementary movement and lifestyle practices and advanced recovery techniques to become a complete and balanced endurance athlete, instead of an unhealthy, narrowly focused, carb-dependent mileage junkie. Of primary importance is learning how to transition out of chronic cardio and carbohydrate dependency to become a fat burning beast! You’ve seen me second-guess the chronic cardio ethos of the endurance community many times on this website, and lament the health challenges that arose from my own chronic training patterns. I don’t plan to be out there on a marathon starting line any time soon, but for those captivated by the extremely popular endurance movement, we describe in detail how to do things right—how to protect your health and delay aging instead of accelerate aging, which essentially is what happens when you follow the conventional approach. This book is for all manner of endurance athletes (Spartan/mud run/adventure racer, 5k, 10k, 13.1, marathon, and ultramarathon runners, sprint, long, and ultra distance triathletes, mountaineers, etc.), both casual and competitive—anyone who wants to do this stuff and stay healthy, really.
Our initial vision for this book was to produce a simple little Primal Blueprint spinoff guide to help acquaint endurance athletes with primal principles, but we had so much good stuff to share from our past (I coached Brad during the prime years of his career on the pro circuit), and from our observations of the disastrously flawed conventional approach in today’s booming endurance sports scene, that this thing turned into a magnificent beast. It’s an 8” x 10” oversized paperback of nearly 400 pages of detailed information, lively storytelling, emphatic urging (to slow down, ditch bad carbs, become intuitive instead of robotic, to learn from our mistakes instead of repeat them, and so forth) and memorable images (including long lost old school pics from dusty attics, like this gem) and cartoons (from book designer Caroline DeVita), with our first full-color interior design production. If you are an endurance athlete, you absolutely must read this book. It will blow your mind and radically alter your approach such that your endurance passions can support your health instead of compromise it. If you’re an endurance athlete and you refuse to read this book, you should probably quit.
April 19: Primal Woman, by Carrie Sisson features a collection of personal and impactful stories and anecdotes from Carrie on themes like Family & Parenting, Forgivness, Relationships, Health & Vitality, and Manifesting Your Intentions. Carrie’s empowering messages emanate from her devoted study of spiritual psychology and role as a facilitator to students around the world. She inspires you to be true to your own voice and intuitive signals, reject the harmful cultural forces that compromise female health, beauty, and happiness, and simply take time daily to enjoy your own company, chase your passions, and continually refocus your priorities. With Carrie’s warm, light-hearted approach, Primal Woman is an entertaining and enlightening journey for women of all ages who want to live the happy, healthy life they deserve. This collection of life experiences is presented in funny, lighthearted, raw, and honest prose that will motivate readers to go out and live a life beyond their wildest dreams. Each story is a lesson in and of itself, and is most often tied to an actionable exercise designed for readers to incorporate into their daily lives as they see fit.
May 17: Good Fat, Bad Fat, by Romy Dollè. We are translating another popular title from the author of the recently released Fruit Belly. Good Fat, Bad Fat provides a comprehensive, easy-to-read education on all aspects of dietary fat, and dismantles the misinformation that has created decades long “fat phobia” in the general population. The book provides a breakdown of assorted forms of dietary fat—the fats that are healthy and important, and the ones that are best avoided.
If you’ve ever been influenced by fat phobia, and might still be influenced by fat phobia, then this book is for you. Romy shows you how to improve your relationship with this vital macronutrient—because fat makes life worth living! The book is supplemented with 70 delicious primal recipes, easy-to-understand summaries of scientific studies, psychological insights, and personal experiences in collaboration with sports nutritionist and former competitive athlete Dr. Torsten Albers.
June 14: Paleo Thyroid Solution, by Elle Russ. Our very own Elle Russ (you may know her as the Primal Blueprint Podcast Hostess with the mostess; she is also one of our founding Primal Blueprint Certified Experts and program development consultant) details her arduous journey to health after ten years of suffering at the hands of dozens of uniformed doctors and endocrinologists. Blending medical research, alternative health care, and primal-style dietary modification, she diagnosed and resolved two severe bouts of hypothyroidism, including an acute case of Reverse T3/Thyroid Hormone Resistance.
The Paleo Thyroid Solution dispels the numerous myths surrounding hypothyroidism and exposes the shoddy science and big Pharma practices that have fostered widespread medical mistreatment of hypothyroid patients by doctors since the 1950s. Elle’s book provides the comprehensive, step-by-step guidance you need to navigate confusing medical advice, dial in your prescription regimen, and maximize your thyroid hormone metabolism through diet and lifestyle. The Paleo Thyroid Solution will help you transform from fat, foggy, and fatigued, to fit, vibrant, and energetic.
November 2016: Primal Blueprint 2017 Page A Day Calendar: Haven’t we had enough of Calvin & Hobbes by now? How about some daily reminders to stay motivated for primal living, or to learn interesting new tidbits, or rip off a recipe page for the fridge? I think it’s long overdue, so we’re designing a calendar for 2017 to make primal living even easier.
Peel a day off the pad and save your favorites, and enjoy a creative and informative new message each day of the year. Each month has a theme relating to one of the ten Primal Blueprint lifestyle laws and the ten Primal Connection habits, while each day of the week repeats with a theme of recipe, exercise, nature experience/connection, reflective journal exercise, and so on.
This desktop calendar in the familiar 6-inch square format is a fabulous gift idea for your favorite primal enthusiast. It also serves as a great introduction to primal living by providing simple, bite-sized inspirations and practical tips to enjoy primal living one day at a time!
December 2016: Kitchen Intuition, by Devyn Sisson. Yep, you read that author name correctly—Kitchen Intuition marks my daughter Devyn’s debut as an author. I am constantly astounded at my daughter’s kitchen intuition. I have to admit—even with a stack of great cookbooks and a folder of magazine clippings on the shelf, sometimes it’s hard to get my creative juices flowing in the kitchen. And then, in steps Devyn. I encouraged her to put her artistic culinary skills into writing…so here, for the first time, is a book dedicated to awakening your inner master chef and helping you become adventurous, creative, and empowered in the kitchen.
Devyn prepared this unique book to help transport you beyond the logistics of good cooking and into the realm of intuition—cultivating a harmonious connection between mind, body, and food. She truly is a self-taught chef and foodie extraordinaire, and she’ll get you acquainted with your body’s nutritional needs, your palate’s likes and dislikes, and the emotional elements that shape your cravings and deep satisfactions with meals. I am so proud of her for elegantly chronicling her personal journey of healing her body through healthful eating and creating this masterful guide to show you how you too can build up health, confidence, and self-esteem from intuitive cooking that transfers into all other areas of life. Devyn says, “This is the book I wish I had read years ago but instead find myself writing. Cooking doesn’t have to be scary, intimidating, difficult, or boring. Cooking can be fun, inexpensive, romantic, and adventurous, when you cultivate your intuition in the kitchen.”
January 1, 2017: Primal Blueprint Comprehensive Update, Expansion, and Revision: It’s hard to believe it’s been almost seven years since I delivered the original final draft manuscript of The Primal Blueprint to my publisher. When we went to paperback format in 2011, we added some extra content (especially the color success story insert) and did some general editing and revisions. Meanwhile, behind the scenes I’ve been enthusiastically canvassing research, listening to the leading voices in the movement, and taking copious notes about topics to revise what was originally written in the Primal Blueprint. As I state often here, I strive to be open-minded, adaptable and capable of revising my stance on all aspects of primal living.
I’m pleased to announce that a comprehensive update, expansion and revision of the original Primal Blueprint, slated to publish around December of 2016. We’re planning for a beautiful four-color presentation with photos and illustrations throughout for an easy and entertaining read. Even if you have a copy of the current Primal Blueprint hardcover or paperback, the 2017 version will be a must-have to represent the ultimate text on primal living.
Alcohol is one example of a topic that I have thought about, studied and done some personal experimentation with over the past seven years, the results of which have compelled me to make a material revision in the original Primal Blueprint stance. Alcohol has historically been listed as a “sensible indulgence” along with dark chocolate in the PB lore. We even threw awesome red wine and chocolate parties in the evenings at PrimalCon. Well, after doing my own personal abstention experiment, talking to many primal enthusiasts who struggle to drop excess body fat despite primal-aligned eating (but copping to a fair amount of alcohol consumption), and reviewing the latest research (particularly alcohol’s little appreciated connection to leaky gut syndrome), I have changed the official Primal Blueprint position on alcohol. It’s now part of Law #2: Avoid Poisonous Things. After all, alcohol is a toxic agent, it significantly interferes with fat metabolism (and promotes fat storage when consumed together with carbs), has been linked recently to leaky gut syndrome (I found this to be relevant when I did my abstention), and can hamper optimal hormone function, including the synthesis of important sex hormones and anti-aging hormones. Yes, red wine is a viable source of antioxidants, but we mustn’t forget that it’s the grapes delivering the antioxidants, not the alcohol.
Here are a few more projects in the early stages of development, but will be here before you know it!
Spring 2017: Primal Sleep: Here’s a high concept title that needs little explanation. But one thing that’s been on my mind the past couple years is that we primal enthusiasts seem to have reached a summit with the important big-ticket lifestyle items like diet. I mean, if you are locked into primal-style eating, how much cleaner can you eat? How many more hairs do we need to split ranking nuts by health benefit, or debating whether avocado oil is better to cook with than coconut oil (answer: they are both way better than oxidized vegetable oil!). If you are struggling with your foundation—ditching sugars and grains, emphasizing primal foods, covering the exercise laws, using too much screen and not enough pillow, by all means keep your focus there.
But once nutrition is tackled, it’s worthwhile to turn your attention to some oft-neglected primal behaviors, such as catching more zzz’s. When it comes to sleep, even the biggest enthusiasts seem to just pay lip service to the topic and spout off a generalization like “seven to eight hours a night is important.” Lately, I’ve become more and more interested in the nuances of sleep. I presented some significant information and practical tips in the Primal Blueprint Expert Certification, and since then I’ve been delving deeper into the subject with research and personal experimentation. Expect a book in early 2017 with a comprehensive take on the subject from a primal perspective.
2017: Fit Over Fifty: People say I don’t look my age, for whatever that’s worth. I guess if they thought I looked my age, they wouldn’t say anything? Anyway, Carrie hears that a lot too, which is cool since we’re a couple! It happens that I’ve prioritized health and wellness my entire life, and now at 62 I’m deeply committed to aging gracefully. The time feels ripe to share some primal-style anti-aging strategies with you…in particular the topic of how to balance peak performance goals with longevity, because there is sometimes a tradeoff there (Brad Kearns and I got into this subject nicely on a recent Primal Blueprint Podcast, Episode #87.)
Aging gracefully is an important concept to embrace, one that will enable you to set appropriate goals and accept an inevitable gradual decline in fitness and overall function that comes with chronology. This book will include suggestions to recalibrate one’s competitive goals based on age and lifestyle circumstances, adopting a healthy mindset about the inevitabilities of moving along past your peak performance years, along with other anti-aging strategies that might just surprise you.
2017: What To Expect When You’re Expecting, Primal Style!: The multitalented Julie Festa de Lagarde, popular Los Angeles acupuncturist, author, life coach, and super mom, is hard at work writing a book for primal pregnancy. We’ve had dreams of developing a primal pregnancy book for a long time, as fertility/pregnancy/childbirth is arguably one of the most, if not the most, important time to get your diet, exercise, and overall well-being dialed in. Julie is a real live active working mom with the comprehensive knowledge and real-world perspective to bring this message to primal enthusiasts, and hopefully interest people in going primal in conjunction with their fertility goals.
Calling All Big Time Book Lovers – Wanna Join Our Review Team?
We are looking for a select group of dedicated readers who would like to receive advance copies of our new books in the hopes that you will read and prepare thoughtful reviews on Amazon.com (and other places where you’d like to offer feedback, including your own blog or other communication resources). Your authentic review will help interest other readers in grabbing the book. We are not trying to stuff the ballot box with a barrage of insincere 5-star reviews, but rather to support those special folks in our community who really love to read and share their feedback with others.
Here’s how it works: just express your interest in this program, we’ll mail you new books (yep, a bunch of them in the coming months but we surely won’t keep this pace up indefinitely!) a bit before they even go on sale to the public, you enjoy the book at a sensible pace, and then post your review. Now, we won’t hunt you down and reclaim our book if you don’t post reviews, but we really hope that you are a good fit for the program and will participate in the spirit intended. How does that sound? If you have a U.S. address and would like to be added to the list, simply complete this form. (Limited to 300 people.)