Foraging for Breakfast at Dino Headquarters

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

One quick note, and then we'll talk healthy food
for dinos.

We ran a scratch and dent sale on Friday, and we
had a huge response. Other than a few CD's, all
of the scratch and dent items are gone.

However, if you're looking to save some clams on
an order, order several items together so we can
ship them in one box -- but email first and ask
for a shipping quote. Tell us what you want and
where you live, and we'll figure out the best
shipping option and get back to you.

We can save you some major clams on shipping
if we combine orders, especially if you live
outside the USA.

On the food front, if you've read Knife, Fork,
Muscle, you know I'm a big fan of healthy,
wholesome food, prepared in simple but
appetizing ways.

Healthy food is good for YOU, of course, but
it's also good for your children or grandchildren.
After all, kids model the behaviour of adults.
If kids see mom and dad eating healthy (or
grandma and grandpa eating healthy), it's
a very important lesson for them.

And youngsters are very impressionable --
so lessons learned when they are young may
last for an entire lifetime.

Case in point . . .

Our seven-year old granddaughters had a sleep
over at our house on Saturday night. So we
were playing their favorite games with them
after dinner.

One of them was building a zoo out of Lincoln
Logs and populating it with toy animals and
(of course) toy dinosaurs. That was in the
living room. Trudi was helping her.

Meanwhile, the other one wanted to play a
card game with me in the breakfast room. We
used some new cards that are marked like
regular playing cards, but have photos of wild
edible plants and flowers on the back -- and
on the other side, instructions on where to
find, and how to harvest and prepare each
wild plant.

So we played cards for awhile, and she won,
and that was good.

But even better -- she asked me to read the
names of the "pretty flowers" on the backs of
the cards.

So I read the first one, and explained that it
grew in the woods, and you could gather the
leaves and eat it as salad or cook it in soups
or stews -- or harvest the roots, and bake
them like potatoes.

She thought that was great -- and promptly
held up another card.

"What's this one?" she asked.

Anyhow, we went through the entire deck of 52
edible plant cards, and talked about all of them --
including the ones that are growing in our yard
and our garden. We have at least a dozen of
them somewherre in the yard.

Dandelion leaves were her favorite, for some
reason. She loved the idea of eating dandelion
leaves.

That was smart, because dandelion salad was
one of Steve Stanko's favorite foods -- and it
has something like 8 times the antioxidants
in cultivated spinach -- along with twice the
calcium, three times the Vitamin A and five
times more vitamin K and vitamin E. (See
Jo Robinson's wonderful book, Eating on the
Wild Side. Great book, highly recommended.)

So I was delighted when she announced that
she wanted to eat "dandelions for breakfast".

She even left the card on the table so she would
remember the next morning.

Sunday morning rolled around, and the girls
were up early -- and the foraging began.

We went out in the yard and gathered blackberries,
raspberries and strawberries -- and dandelion
leaves -- and some spinach, mixed salad greens,
chard, arugula, kale and sorrel -- along with
some edible flowers. (Note: not all flowers are
edible -- many are not -- but we grow edible
flowers as a salad garnish in one of the garden
boxes.)

We took everything inside, washed it off, and
put together a combination fruit and vegetable
salad. I did a rough calculation of the nutrition
content, and it was "PDH" -- which is short for
Pretty Darn Healthy.

It was also "PDT" -- which is short for Pretty
Darn Tasty.

And I just learned that on the way to summer
school this morning, she told her dad that she
got to eat dandelion leaves for breakfast on
Sunday morning -- and it was the best
breakfast ever. Move over Mickey's D's --
we've got you beat.

Steve Stanko would have approved.

By the way, if you go foraging for dandelion
leaves, do NOT eat any leaves that have been
sprayed with any chemicals -- or that grow near
a busy road with lots of traffic and petroleum
fumes. We let them grow in our garden boxes,
so we have fresh and healthy dandelion greens,
and we know they are chemical free and safe
to eat.

And of course, if you want to try other wild
edible foods, get some expert guidance on
what is safe to eat. There are plenty of good
books and other resources available, and in
most places (here in Louisville, for example),
there are folks who teach classes on it. Be
smart and be safe!

As always, thanks for reading, and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a good
one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. Knife, Fork, Muscle covers healthy eating
for Dinos. You can get the hard-copy right
here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_nutrition.html

We're also releasing the little monster as a series of
e-books. The first book in the series covers protein
requirements for Dinos -- and your best sources of
high quality protein. Go here to grab it:

http://www.brookskubik.com/knifeforkmuscle01_kindle.html

E-book 2 in the series will be out soon. Be looking
for it!

P.S. 2. My other books and courses are right here
at Dino Headquarters -- along with links to my
other Kindle e-books:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Train right and eat
right. Right training and right eating brings
righteous results." -- Brooks Kubik

********************************************

The Steak Tree

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

So some food scientists have developed
an test-tube hamburgers -- hamburger
meat grown from stem cells.

Everyone's talking about it.

Some people think it's the greatest
thing since sliced bread. Others think
it's ridiculous. And some think it will
be how we feed the world in the not too
distant future -- assuming the soylent
green thing doesn't work.

Personally, I don't know and I don't
care.

I grow my own steaks in the back yard
garden.

Not test-tube hamburgers. Real steaks.
Grass fed beef. The best in town.

Now, before you think I've flipped my
lid --- or that I've started cattle
ranching (or rustling), let me explain.

A couple of years ago, Trudi planted a
fig tree by the side of the house.

The darn thing grew, and now it's a
real fig tree, and it grows figs.

Fresh figs are delicious and wonderful
and awesome and an incredible treat.

They're also 100% carbs (i.e, sugar)
and we don't eat them.

And yet -- we have a fig tree with a
bunch of fresh figs.

What to do?

Last weekend, I went to the Farmer's
market and bought some grass fed beef
and pastured pork from one of the
farmers. By "some" I mean LOTS. It
takes plenty of high quality protein
to feed a Dinosaur.

The guy I buy the meat from is named
Stan. His wife, Leila, is a gourmet
chef and caterer. She sells spectacular
homemade soups, stews, quiches and other
goodies at the Market. We always buy
somethign from her, just because it
looks so darn good.

So there I was, buying a couple hundred
pounds of beef and pork from Stan
Well, not that much, but it was more
than the non-lifters -- a/k/a the
skinny people) were buying.

Leila's booth is right next to Stan's
booth. Stan was rummaging in his ice
boxes for a pork roast for me, and
Leila was enjoying a free moment
with no customers srtanding in line.

So I popped the question.

"Leila -- do you like figs?"

That brought an unexpected response.

"Like them? I LOVE them! I grew up
eating fresh figs from my grandmother's
fig tree."

"Well, we have a fig tree where
they'r ejust about ripe -- and we
don't eat them -- and we we're
wondering if -- "

"I'll take them!" she said.

So she gave me her number and told me
to call her when the figs were ripe.

So last night, I finished a killer
workout out in the Dino Dungeon (a/k/a
the garage), and when I walked back 
to the house I swung over and checked
out the fig tree.

Ripe -- ripe and ready to pick.

So I grabbed a basket and picked a
big mess of them.

This afternoon, Trudi called Leila and
told her to come over and pick up her
figs.

When Leila came over, she brought three
thick, beautiful, steaks -- all of them
from Stan's wonderful grass-fed beef.

So Leila got the figs -- and Trudi got
the steaks -- and they're cooking right
now (or rather, one of them is) -- and
when I sign off I'm going to go devour
the thing. Every last bit of it.

And that's why I can say, "To heck with
the test-tube hamburgers -- I'm growing
steaks in the backyard!"

As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. if you train today, make it
a good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. Steaks are good, squats are good, and
here's something else that's good --
especially for the home gym Dinos:

http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.html

P.S. 2. These are good, too:

http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dvds.html

P.S. 3. My other books and courses are
right here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 4. Thought for the Day: "Steak always tastes
better if you earn it --- and that means heavy
training." -- Brooks Kubik

The Food Mobile

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

A guy in Louisville has opened
some old-fashioned corner grocery
stores featuring nothing but fresh,
locally grown vegetables, fruits,
and eggs -- and some locally raised
free range beef and pork, and locally
sourced cheese and honey. It's sort
of like going to the local Farmer's
Market.

He's calls the stores The Root
Cellar.

There's Root Cellar No. 1 and Root
Cellar No. 2. Trudi goes to them
once or twice a week, grabbing
extra green stuff to supplement
what we buy at the Farmer's Market
or grow in the back yard.

Now he's taking the thing one
step further.

He's buying a big bus, and he's
going to make it into a Food
Mobile.

Sort of like a Book Mobile, for
those of you old enough to
remember the Book Mobile. (The
book mobile was  a bus or van
that brought library books to
parts of town far away from the
library. Neat concept. Books
are good, reading is good,
libraries are good and Book
Mobiles are good.)

But back to the Food Mobile.

He'll use it to bring fresh,
healthy food to people living
in the parts of town we call
Food Deserts -- the parts
of Louisville where all you
can buy is fast food, junk
food and processed junk from
the gas station or
convenience mart.

These are parts of town where
there's no local grocery store,
and where fresh vegetables are
virtually unknown. And you can
imagine the health impact of
living on chips and cheese
crackers.

He's raising funding for the
project on Kickstarter. Trudi
and I are supporting him. It
seems like a good thing to do.

You can read more about it
right here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1679419829/the-root-mobile-a-locally-grown-farm-fresh-mobile

I think it's a pretty good
idea -- and it's something we
might be seeing in lots of places
around the world in the not too
distant future.

Anyhow, that's the Food Mobile.

Be looking for a post tomorrow
about a somewhat similar idea
that one of the original Dinos
came up with about 10 years ago.
I call it The Muscle Mobile --
and you'll want to be sure to
read about it.

As always, thanks for reading
and have a great day. If you
train today, make it a good
one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. For strength and health, eat
your veggies and hit the iron --
Dino Style. My books and courses
tell you how to do it:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 2. Thought for the Day: "Iron
plus effort plus healthy eating
equals great results." -- Brooks Kubik

Farmer's Market Beet Down!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

I hit the Farmer's Market this morning.

I started with Todd Childers' booth.
Todd and his wife, Megan, ran a great
little operation called Facing West
Farm.

I grabbed three bunches of Swiss chard,
a big bag of lettuce, a bunch of carrots,
three heads of broccoli, and a small
green cabbage.

Todd had plenty of other great stuff --
including some awesome looking beets with
the beet greens attached.

Now, here's the deal on beets.

I love beet greens. I grow beets in the
garden, just for the beet greens, and I
can never get enough of them.

But beets are too sweet -- and too high in
carbs. So they don't work well for this
T-Rex.

I've been buying beets from Todd just for
beet greens, and we've ended up with a big
bunch of left-over beets. They'll probably
end up in the compose pile, which is sort
of a shame.

So I had promised myself (and more
importantly, I had promised Trudi) that I
wouldn't get any today.

But those beet greens sure looked good.

Then I had an idea.

"Todd -- could I buy some beet greens
without the beets? You can eat them or
you can sell them to someone else."

"Sure," he said.

So he chopped the beet greens off the beets
and tossed them into a big bag for me. I got
three big bunches of greens. Enough to fill
a standard, large size shopping bag.

Meanwhile, an older man standing next to me
watched us with interest.

"Don't you want the beets?" he asked. "They're
my favorite part!"

"They're all yours!" I said.

So I went home with the beet greens, and the
older gentleman went home with the beets --
and we were both happy as clams.

That's part of the fun of shopping at the
Farmer's Market. Everyone goes home happy.

As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a
good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. We're blasting into the Holiday season,
so get those orders in ASAP so we can get
them out the door to you:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 2. Remember, if you want me to autograph
a book or course for you, all you need to do
is ask! Use the Special Instructions section
of the on-line order form to make your request.

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Support your
local farmers!" -- Brooks Kubik

Green Side Up, Roots Down!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

I'm reading a book called The Good Food
Revolution, by a man named Will Allen.
He's a former pro basketball player
turned urban gardener. He runs an
incredible farm on three acres in
inner city Milwaukee, where he
produces over one million pounds
of fresh food every year. That's
enough to feed ten thousand
people.

It's an local operation. He hires
people in the neighborhood to work
on the farm, and he sells the food
at his own neighborhood market.

For many of his employees, it's their
only chance at a job -- and for just
about everyone in the neighborhood,
it's their only access to fresh,
healthy, nutritious  food. The local
supermarket closed down long ago, and
after that, the only food options were
burgers, fries and fried chicken from
two fast food joints.

There's no way to know, but I would
imagine that providing fresh, healthy
vegetables, eggs, fish and other healthy
foods has prevented hundreds of cases
of obesity, diabetes and other health
problems caused by a poor diet. So Will
Allen's inner city farm has probably
saved lives.

He does more than grow vegetables. He
grows hope.

Anyhow, I'm at a part in the book where
he's just getting started, and someone
asks him to teach some school kids how
to grow vegetables. So he clears out a
big field covered with tall weeds, tills
it, and buys some transplants.

But they kids don't know what to do.
They've never seen a transplant before.

"Green side up," he tells them. "Roots
down."

And those five words tell them all they
need to know -- and a few months later,
that formerly weed-covered field is full
of fresh, green vegetables.

And somehow, that reminded me of newbies
in the strength and muscle game. The ones
who are just getting started, and have
their heads crammed full of mainstream
muscle comic silliness.

They're just like those tiny transplants.
They're ready to grow, but they've got a
green side to them -- and they'll only
grow if someone plants them root side
down.

That was ME when I was a young kid. At 83
pounds of less than massive muscles, I was
training for two or three hours a day on
Sergio Oliva's super-duper Mr. Olympia
training program. I copied the entire
workout on a piece of paper, tacked it
to the wall, and hit it rep for rep
and set for set just like clockwork.

Of course, I got NOWHERE -- and that's
what almost always happens with newbies.
They don't gain until they learn how to
train the right way.

That's one of the reasons I write books
and courses about sane, sensible, productive
training. I remember the skinny kid I once
was, desperate to build strength and muscle,
and having no idea at all of how to do it.
I want to help that kid -- and I want to
help everyone else, from beginner to
intermediate to advanced -- of any age --
attain their goals of strength training
success.

If you're reading this and you're a beginner,
start with Chalk and Sweat. If you prefer to
start with bodyweight exercises, start with
Dinosaur Bodyweight Training. You can find
them here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/chalk_and_sweat.html

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_bodyweight.html

If you're an experienced trainee, make a point
of helping the next newbie you see. Get him
started the right way:

"Green side up, roots down."

Which usually means squats, deadlifts, presses
and pulling. But hey, you knew that -- after
all, you're a Dinosaur!

As always, thanks for reading and have a great
day. If you train today, make it a good one.

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. My other books and courses are right here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 2. Thought for the Day: "Train smart from
day one, and you won't believe what happens."
-- Brooks Kubik

One Million Pounds of Food on Three Acres!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

On Facebook the other day, I shared a
link about a former professional
basketball player named Will Allen,
who now works as an urban gardener.
It was pretty popular, so for those
who missed it, let me tell you a bit
about Will Allen and his inner city
farming operation.

He has an incredible gardening system
where he uses food scraps, plant stalks,
coffee grounds, etc. to create an amazing
nutrient dense compost to grow vegetables.

He has worm bins, and the worms eat the
food scraps, and the worm castings are
added to the compost. It's a super
supplement for the soil.

He also has indoor fish tanks and growing
tanks for hydroponic vegetables (i.e.,
vegetables grown in water rather than in
the dirt).

He does it inside unheated greenhouses,
and he grows food all year round. And he
does it in inner city neighborhoods in
Milwaukee and in Chicago. The Chicago 
"farm" is built right on top of an old
basketball court!

He practices container gardening, and
vertical gardening, and he does everything
possible to maximize the yield from every
square foot of land.

And get this -- he has produced one million
pounds of food on three acres of land in one
year.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.growingpower.org/

There are plenty of reasons why this is a
great thing to be doing. It creates local
jobs, it helps communities develop food
independence and food security, it helps
enormously with carbon capture (run the
numbers on three acres of ugly blacktop
compared to three acres of garden), and
it helps people get plenty of super
nutritious and affordable locally
grown food.

And since a healthy diet does so much to
put the smackdown on obesity, diabetes,
heart attacks, etc., a massive effort
to grow plenty of fresh, healthy, and
nutritious food in every neighborhood
in the country -- or indeed, in the
entire world -- might just be one of
the very best public health initiatives
ever undertaken.

The interesting thing is, this isn't all
that new. There was a time when virtually
all large cities had extensive urban
gardens.

In Paris, for example, there were Market
Gardens that used intensive gardening
methods to grow enough food to provide
fresh vegetables to everyone in the city,
and to have enough left over to export
to England!

All of this was done with what we would
now call organic farming methods. They
collected horse manure from the city
streets and stables, and mixed it with
stable straw, and composed the mixture.
It was an incredible growing medium.

And think about this -- at the same time
that the Market Gardens of Paris provided
an enormous amount of super nutritious
fresh produce for every citizen of the
city, some of the strongest men in the
world lived there -- and ate plenty of
those market garden veggies.

Coincidence?

I don't think so!

In any case, Dino Headquarters gives Will
Allen a big tip of the hat for a job well
done. One million pounds of food on three
acres is pretty darn impressive.

As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a
good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. Eating right and training right is a
sure-fire key to success -- and I cover
the right kind of training in detail in
all of my books and courses. You can find
them right here at Dino Headquarters: 

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 2. Thought for the Day: "Training is
hard work, but without adequate nutrition
it becomes impossible work." -- Brooks Kubik

Strong Soil Builds Strong Bodies!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

I'm running late with this morning's
email message because I've been working
in the garden.

But since gardening means fresh, healthy
food -- which all Dinosaurs need -- I
thought I'd share a bit about what I'm
doing.

We started a backyard (and side-yard)
vegetable garden four years ago. We
have very thick, clay soil, so we do
the gardening in raised beds. They're
made of 2 x 8 boards, and they
range from 10 feet to 20 feet in
length. They're 4 feet wide. We
have six raised beds.

You don't have to start like that. We
certainly  didn't. We started small,
to see if we could do it -- and when
we discovered that we could actually
grow things, we started to expand.

It's like lifting. You start out with
a basic barbell and dumbbell set, and
before you know it you have five tons
of stuff in your garage.

We garden all year round, using small
structures called low tunnels to keep
the veggies from freezing. More on that
another day -- but for now, I want to
talk about my special nutrition program
for the garden.

The key to growing healthy vegetables is
great soil.

Great soil doesn't happen by accident.
You have to build it over time. It's
just like building strength and muscle.

And -- like building strength and
muscle -- nutrition is critical. Your
vegetables absorb vitamins, minerals
and nitrogen from the soil. The more
good stuff in the soil, the more good
stuff goes into the veggies.

So you want your soil to get plenty of
good stuff. To make it happen, you give
it special supplements.

Over the years, I've worked many tons
of compost into the garden beds. I use
100 percent natural and organic composted
cow manure and a mushroom compost blend.
I also have put in many big bags of peat
moss.

I make my own compost, as well, using
all the left-over bits of fruit and veggies
from our meals. Since we use fresh fruits
and veggies, we always have plenty of stalks,
stems, cores, peels and other inedible parts.
We chop them up and throw them into the
compost pile.

I also throw coffee grounds and tea leaves
from used tea bags into the compost pile --
along with crushed egg shells. I always wash
the egg shells first so there's no egg white
in them -- that wouldn't work well in the
compost. You never compost fat, meat or
similar foods. They don't break down quickly
enough, they create a bad smell, and they
attract critters.

I follow the Vince Gironda approach and
use kelp meal to provide extra minerals.
Gironda used to tell bodybuilders to take
kelp tablets -- I tell my garden beds to
take them!

I also use green manures and cover crops
to build up the soil. In the spring, I plant
peas. Peas are awesome because they actually
create nitrogen as they grow. The roots end
up covered into little nitrogen-containing
nodes that feed the soil even as the soil
feeds the pea plants!

Gironda used to talk about nitrogen balance,
and told bodybuilders they had to do every-
thing possible to maintain positive nitrogen
balance. That was the origin of the egg an
hour program, and it was why Gironda liked
liver tablets so much.

But peas beat the heck out of any of Gironda's
nitrogen balance tricks. Vince would have
loved it!

This morning, I planted some crops, but I also
planted lots of buckwheat in some of the beds.
Buckwheat is amazing. It grows super fast and
super thick, and smothers any weeds. It attracts
bees and butterflies, which help keep your garden
growing.

After five or six weeks -- before the buckwheat
to seed -- you cut it down and turn it under the
soil. All of the nutrition in the buckwheat goes
back into the soil, and the buckwheat bulks up
the soil so it's nice and light, with plenty of
air. You want light, airy soil -- it holds water
better, it makes it easy for all of the earthworms
and other garden helpers to move around, and it
makes it easy for the roots of your plants to
grow straight and deep.

I'm a bit late on getting the buckwheat in, so
I'm going to give it some help. As soon as it
starts to come up and form leaves, I'm going to
spray the leaves with a mix of water, kelp powder,
and fish guts.

The kelp provides minerals, and the fish guts
provide nitrogen -- and the buckwheat leaves
absorb the stuff after you spray it on. It's
like a mixture of Gironda's kelp tablets, Bob
Hoffman's Proteen from the Sea, and the spray-
on suntan stuff that bodybuilders use.

Sounds crazy, I know -- but it will increase
my buckwheat crop by about 40 percent.

The only thing left to do is to get my raised
beds on some sort of weightlifting program.
I haven't quite figured out how to do that,
but I'm working on it. Two or three Dino-
style abbreviated workouts would work
wonders for them!

Anyhow, that's how I spent the morning --
building the soil so I can grow better and
more nutritious vegetables -- so I get more
nutrition from my meals -- so I can recover
better from my workouts and lift more weight
when I hit the iron out in the Fortress of
Strength a/k/a The Dino Garage.

It may sound like a lot of work just to set
a new PR or two -- but if you're a Dino, you
know how sweet those PR's can be -- and you
know that you will do whatever needs to be
done to set them!

As always, thanks for reading and have
a great day. if you train today, make it a
good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. Be sure to reserve your copy of my new
book, Dinosaur Dumbbell Training, during our
big pre-publication special:

http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.html

P.S. 2. My other books and courses -- and
DVD's -- are right here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Strong soil builds
strong bodies." -- Brooks Kubik

The Dinosaur Hits the Farmer's Market!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

I just got back from the Farmer's Market, where I scored some great food for the week.

When you go to the Farmer's Market, you don't take a shopping list. You look for whatever is best looking, freshest and healthiest.

And if you have your own garden, you grab things you don't grow.

We have a ton of greens, enough kale to feed an army of elephants, plenty of parsley, basil and other herbs, some winter squash, pumpkins and tomatoes. So I didn't need any of those.

We have some chard, but not very much. The leaves are small, and we usually cut them and throw them into fresh salads. But Trudi and I both like steamed chard with dinner (or with eggs, for breakfast), so I'm always on the lookout for that. Spotted some great chard and grabbed four big bunches. They were grown by a young man and woman who somehow managed to beat the summer heat and raise some seriously nice veggies. Good for them!

After that, I wandered over to another farmer's stand -- and spotted some great-looking blackberries. Grabbed a pint. The farmer put them into a small plastic bag. All of the farmers use recycled plastic bags (the kind you see at a supermarket). Many people bring them old bags. Helps keep their costs down, which means we all get more and cheaper food.

The same farmer (a young man with a faintly philosophical expression), also had some good-looking summer squash and potatoes. I don't eat many potatoes (and Trudi rarely touches them), but these looked nice. They were fairly small, too, which is good.  You don't need to chow down on a giant potato all the time.

Anyhow, I grabbed a small box of potatoes and a summer squash. proving that he truly was  a philosopher (or at least someone who looked out for his customers), he put them in a separate bag so they wouldn't smash the blackberries.

I checked out several other farm stands. They had lots of great looking tomatoes, and I was sorely tempted -- but we have plenty of our own, and buying more would be silly. So I passed on the tomatoes.

One thing you don't see at a Farmer's Market is junk food. Even the best grocery stores have endless aisles of cheese doodles, cookies and sugar-syrup candy coated crunchie stuff called breakfast cereal (which they actually market as heart-healthy and good for you). You don't have to buy it, of course (and we certainly don't), but it's good for your soul to be able to get out and buy some real food without having to walk past the garbage.

If you have kids, think about this: how healthy would your kid grow up to be if he or she only went with you to the Farmer's Market and never set foot inside a grocery store? (Come to think of it, how healthy would YOU be if you did that?)

I walked back to the heirloom tomatoes. Tempting. Very tempting. I almost gave in -- but at the end, I decided to look for things we don't have in the garden.  

One of the farmers had some great looking peaches. I bought a pound. The young woman working at the farm stand was tall, slim, blond, and beautiful, but being married, I certainly didn't notice any of that. I did notice that she picked out the best looking peaches when she weighed them for me. Another young farmer who knows a thing or two about customer service!

After I paid for the peaches,  I spotted a red pepper that looked incredible. It was an heirloom pepper, boasting a deep, rich wine-color. If I had to name the color, I'd call it burgundy.  If it wasn't burgundy, I don't know what it was, But whatever it was, it sure looked tasty.

I had to have it! It was fate.

You see, last night Trudi saw a recipe where you cut a red pepper into circular slices and drop them into a frying pan -- and then drop an egg into the center, so you end up with a fried egg circled by the red pepper. She was wild to try it, but we didn't have any peppers in the house. So this would be her breakfast treat.

I asked the price, handed over a dollar, and got change back. That's another nice thing about the Farmer's Market. It's all cash. No plastic. And you really do get change back some of the time. It's a nice feeling.

I walked by a stand where they were selling small herb plants. If you don't have room for a garden, buy some small herb plants and grow herbs in small containers. When you cook, cut a leaf or two and see what a difference fresh herbs will make. (And from a nutritional point of view, fresh herbs are exceptional.)

I finished up by grabbing four dozen eggs, four pork chops and five pounds of ground beef from a local farmer who sells his own  all natural beef, pork, lamb, chicken and eggs from free-range, grass fed critters. I would have grabbed some bacon, as well, but for some inexplicable reason I forgot. (I know, I know - how could you forget bacon? But we have a pound or two in the freezer, so all is  not lost.)

This particular farmer is one of our favorites. He works incredibly hard to bring the very best products to his customers. We buy all of our meat and eggs from him, and if he sold fish, we'd buy fish from him as well. I think Trudi and I are his favorite customers, Trudi because she's pretty and pleasant and sweet, and me because I eat a lot. Many of the folks who go to the Farmer's Market are vegetarians, so a farmer who sells beef, pork and eggs is happy to have a hungry weightlifter for a customer.

I asked how his critters were handling the summer heat. He said they were doing well. He feeds them lots of kelp meal as a food supplement, and the salt and minerals really help them. I told him that Vince Gironda used to recommend kelp tablets for bodybuilders "back in the day." He thought that was interesting. I think Gironda would have liked him.

Grimek would have liked him, too. Do you remember the famous Grimek line, "Meat is my baby!" -- that would be music to the farmer's ears.

By the way, Grimek, Gironda and all the other great bodybuilders and weightlifters from the Golden Age of Iron all ate pretty much the way Trudi and I eat: fresh veggies, fresh meat and fish, and fresh eggs. All of it natural and organic, because all food was natural and organic back then. And much of it was grown locally.

So yes, Grimek, Stanko, and Gironda -- and Davis, Schemansky, Hepburn and Anderson -- and Kono,
Klein, Terlazzo, Spellman and Pete George -- LaLanne, Gironda, Park and so many more -- all ate natural foods, organic foods, local foods and seasonal foods.  So did the men who came before them -- men like Saxon, Sandow, Hackenschmidt, Inch, Cyr, Apollon, Marx and Goerner.  That ought to tell you something.

The meat and eggs finished my shopping for the day. Actually, it almost finished my shopping for the week. With what we grow ourselves, we won't need much more for the next seven days.

Yes, I know they say that healthy food is expensive. Actually, it's not that expensive at all. You just need to know where to find it. And in our neck of the woods, the Farmer's Market is a great place to start.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day. If you train today, make it a good one -- and always remember to eat your veggies!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. In case you missed it, we just started the big pre-publication special for my new book, DINOSAUR DUMBBELL TRAINING. You can read about it (and place an order for the little monster) right here:

http://brookskubik.com/dinosaur_dumbbelltraining.html

P.S. 2.  Save big clams on shipping and handling by ordering two or more Dinosaur Training books,
courses, DVD's, t-shirts or other goodies at the same time. You can find them right here at Dino
Headquarters:

 http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Great training and great food adds up to great gains. And great gains are good." -- Brooks Kubik

Big Breaking News for Dinos!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

Last week I asked if any of you
were interested in a book on diet
and nutrition for strength and
health.

And, as you may have guessed, I
got flooded with responses.

Trudi took one look at the in-box,
ran through the first 10 or fifteen
emails, and turned to me.

I knew what was coming.

"I guess you'd better get to work,"
she said.

And she was right. Because the Dinos
are salivating at the thought of a
book about Dino-style diet and
nutrition.

"Please do it!" you said."I've been
waiting and waiting for this!"

And many of you said:

"This is perfect. My training is going
good, but I need to work on the diet
and nutrition part."

So it's pretty clear that it's time to
get to work.

Lucky for me, for the past couple of
years I've been doing a TON of reading
and researching on various aspects of
the diet and nutrition puzzle. In fact,
for my last birthday and again at
Christmas 2011, all I asked for were
some old, out of print but very useful
books on diet and nutrition. At the
moment, they're piled six or eight
high on a small chair on the other
side of the study -- filled with slips
of paper marking important passages.

So the research part of the job is
already completed. Now I'm into the
writing part.

One new reader asked me how long it
would take to get the book written.

"I know you work really fast," he wrote.
"What's the time-table -- six months,
nine months, or longer?"

He was right about working fast, but he
was wrong about the six to nine month
part. It's going to be ready a heck of
a lot faster than that.

Of course, as always, I'll keep you posted
on my progress -- and when it's time, we'll
do a pre-publication launch with a killer
bonus for everyone who reserves a copy
of the little monster. Heck, I may even
give you my special recipe for pterodactyl
burgers.

In the meantime, feel free to shoot in any
questions about diet, nutrition, food,
gardening, supplements, gaining weight,
losing weight, healthy diets, what the
old-time strongmen ate, etc. I won't have
time to answer them individually (because
I'm in full-fledged, book writing mode),
but I'll try to answer them in the book
itself.

Short emails with words of encouragement
will also be appreciated. Full-fledged
book writing mode is hard work -- and
it's good to hear from those of you in
the outside world when I'm chained to
the computer!

In the meantime, keep on training hard
and heavy -- dinosaur style! I want 2012
to be your best year ever for strength
and health!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. We're getting rave reviews on the new
John Grimek training course -- so if you
haven't already grabbed a copy, do it now!
You can find the little monster right here:

http://brookskubik.com/johngrimek_course.html

P.S. 2. Dinosaur Bodyweight Training has also
been getting rave reviews:

http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_bodyweight.html

P.S. 3 My other books and courses -- and Dino
DVD's -- are right here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 4. Thought for the Day: "If it was as
complicated as the experts try to make it, no
one would ever make any progress."
-- Brooks Kubik

Green Sludge for Strength and Health!

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

One of the secrets of healthy eating for

Dinosaurs is green sludge.

But before you go out and start looking

for a can of the stuff, let me explain.

For breakfast, I usually eat a great big

omelet that includes two cups of chopped

herbs and fresh, leafy vegetables from my

back-yard garden, along with some

onions or leeks fried up with chopped

mushrooms.

Since everything is fresh, I do all the

chopping, dicing and slicing myself --

which means I end up with lots of stalks

and stems and any leaves that don't look

good enough to eat. So I end up with a

cup or two of stalks, stems and leaves

from my home-grown, 100 percent natural

and organic parsley, chervil, spinach,

kale, dandelion greens, arugula, mustard

greens, tatsoi and other Asian greens,

lettuces, beet greens, chard, collard

greens, and similar goodies -- along

with mushroon stems and non-edible

parts of the onions and leeks.

I throw them into a cookie jar on the

kitchen counter.

I also end up with four egg shells. I

wash them in hot water, and throw them

into the cookie jar, as well.

For lunch, I usually have a huge salad,

and once again I end up with a cup or

two of stems and stalks and other odds

and ends that go into the cookie jar.

I eat very little fruit, but if the

granddaughters come to visit they usually

have some fruit -- and we throw the banana

skins, apple cores and orange peels into

the cookie jar.

Dinner is meat or fish, chicken on occasion,

and more fresh veggies -- and once again we

end up with lots of odds and ends for the

some sort of cookie jar.

We usually fill the cookie jar at least once

per day. (Yes, we eat lots and lots of fresh

veggies!)

When the cookie jar is full, I throw every-

thing into a food processor and mix it up

with a cup of water.

Thirty seconds later I have about one quart

of thick green sludge.

Now, you're probably thinking I drink the

stuff. Like Rocky, with the raw eggs. Or like

a veggie-version of the Get Big Drink.

But you're wrong.

I take it out to the garden and add it to

the compost pile. It breaks down very

quickly, and I end up with a steady supply

of high quality compost filled with tons of

nitrogen, vitamins, and minerals from the

veggies and the egg-shells.

I use the compost to keep the garden growing

the best and most nutritious vegetables

possible.

So that's one of our secrets of healthy eating

here at Dino Headquarters: green sludge!

As always, thanks for reading and have a great

day. If you train today, make it a good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. If you're interested in more diet and

nutrition tips for Dinos, shoot me an email

and ask me to put them in a book or course!

P.S. 2. Healthy eating goes hand in hand with

serious training -- and my Dinosaur Training

books and courses are your number one resource

for serious training:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 3. Thought for the day: "Good training and

good diet equal great results!" -- Brooks Kubik

Food for Thought

Hail to the Dinosaurs!

About ten years ago, I was on vacation in
Victoria, British Columbia -- an absolutely
beautiful city -- and I visited the Royal BC
Museum.

They have all kinds of great exhibitions,
including many devoted to the First Nations --
the tribes that settled BC long before the
arrival of the Europeans.

Halfway through the First Nations gallery,
I spotted a buckskin shirt with long sleeves
and intricate bead-work. The note on the
display described it as a war-shirt or
ceremonial shirt belonging to a chief or
the son of achief. (Bear with me -- this
was ten years ago, and I'm a bit foggy on
the details.)

There was something about the shirt that
stopped me in my tracks.

Before I tell you what it was, let me explain
that shirts and Brooks have had a long and
difficult relationship. I haven't fit into
off the rack shirts and "normal" sizes for
a long, long time. They don't make them for
a man who carries a lot of muscle mass in the
chest and shoulder girdle.

Even the so-called "athletic cut" stuff doesn't
work. It's designed for guys with wide shoulders
and small waists. That's fine as far as it goes,
but ti doesn't take thickness into account. If
you have big, bulging traps, thick lats, thick
shoulders and thick pecs, the wide cut clothing
won't work worth a darn. And if you go up in
sizes, the shirt fits your shoulders but looks
like a circus tent around your waist.

So it gets tough -- and expensive.

When I worked as a lawyer, I had to buy tailor
made shirts and suits. Pricey as heck, and a
real pain. Unfair, too. Instead of making off
the rack stuff for fat guys and skinny guys,
they should make off the rack stuff for Dinos
(i.e., thick and muscular) and let the fat
guys and the skinny guys pay for the special
order stuff.

But I digress. Back to the war shirt at the
First Nations exhibit.

It would have fit me perfectly.

It was tailor-made for a man with a weightlifter's
physique. You could see that the man who it had
huge, sloping traps -- enormous shoulders -- thick
lats, thick pecs -- and thick, muscular arms. And
it tapered to a trim, squared off midsection. Not
a bodybuilder style "wasp-waist" but a functional
midsection that would support some serious physical
efforts.

It was a body designed for battle -- for hunting --
for long hours of paddling a canoe -- for swinging an
ax -- for swimming -- for wrestling -- for running --
for throwing things -- for dragging, pulling, lifting
and carrying things.

In short, it was a Dinosaur's body.

How did that long-dead warrior develop his body?

I doubt that it was through any form of systematic
exercise -- although it certainly might have been.
Other ancient cultures have practiced various forms
of progressive physical training.

I think it was largely the result of the warrior's
lifestyle -- of his day to day activities. Hunting,
fishing, paddling, swimming, running, wrestling,
swinging an ax, lifting and carrying things.

I also think it was a result of his diet. What did
the First Nations eat?

They ate strength and power foods -- muscle building
foods -- foods that promoted gains in muscle mass
while limiting gains in bodyfat:

1. Wild salmon and other wild fish

2. Fish oil (google "oolichan grease")

3. Wild game

4. Wild shell-fish

5. Small amounts of seasonal vegetables and fruits
(berries)

There was NO sugar, NO alcohol, NO wheat, and NO
potatoes. NO high carb foods of any sort (other than
occasional wild honey of you could get to it before
the bears did). NO super supplements. NO protein
powder. NO metabolic optimizers.

And it worked pretty well. Witness the warrior's
buckskin shirt in the museum.

There's a very interesting documentary about an
entire village of First Nations people at the
northern tip of Vancouver Island, and how they
returned to their ancestral diet for an entire
year -- and the remarkable effect the diet had
on their health and physical condition. You
can read more about it here:

http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/grease.html

Very interesting stuff -- and definitely, food for
thought.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great
day. If you train today, make it a good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. The top sellers this month are DINOSAUR
BODYWEIGHT TRAINING, CHALK AND SWEAT, DINOSAUR
ARM TRAINING, and THE DINOSAUR TRAINING MILITARY
PRESS AND SHOULDER POWER COURSE. You can find
them right here:

http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html

P.S. 2. If anyone lives in Victoria -- or visits
Victoria -- go to the Royal BC Museum and find
the shirt in the First nations exhibit -- and
make a note of the info and send it to me.
Thanks!

P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "Whatever you do, give
it everything you have." -- Brooks Kubik

News and Updates from Dinosaur Training!

ail to the Dinosaurs!

A couple of quick notes for Dinos:

1. Dinosaur Back Training

I'll be interviewed on Superhuman Radio this
coming Tuesday, March 22 at 12:00 noon EST.

The topic will be DINOSAUR BACK TRAINING.

If you miss the live broadcast, be sure catch
the download and listen to it later on.

You can find log onto the live broadcast or
grab the download here at the Superhuman Radio
site:

http://www.superhumanradio.com/

2. Dinosaur Gardening

I'll be doing a second interview on Superhuman Radio
on Tuesday, March 29 -- also at 12:00 noon EST.

This one will be about Dinosaur Gardening -- as in,
why a backyard or container veggie garden is one of
your number one weapon sin the battle for strength
and health.

And not only WHY -- but HOW TO DO IT quickly and
easily.

And let me note right now -- this is not your typical
gardening course.

It's more about strength training for veggies --
combined with plenty of high powered nutrition for
them.

I'll even tell you about my secret GET BIG DRINK for
growing Dino-sized vegetables. And the best part is,
you make it at home and it costs you zippo. (You don't
drink it -- your plants do.)

I also make homemade protein powder, vitamin/mineral
powders, and metabolic optimizers for my veggies. And
I'll tell you exactly how I do it.

In addition -- I buy supplements for them -- and I'll
tell you all about it on the show.

Why do I do this? Because it's the only way to make
sure that your veggies are as healthy as possible,
and as nutritious as possible. (Not to mention, as
tasty as possible.) -- and for anyone who'd like high
quality, locally grown, organic vegetables at low, low
prices. Because you can't beat the price if you grow
it yourself.

Fun stuff -- and very good information for health-
conscious Dinos.

3. Dino Files renewals

If you subscribe to the Dinosaur Files newsletter, it's
time to renew your subscription. Here's the special order
page for RENEWALS:

http://brookskubik.com/dinosaurfiles_renewalpage.html

4. The April Dino Files.

I'm putting the April issue of The Dinosaur Files together,
and as always, I need photos from readers. So don't be
shy -- send them in!

5. New Book Coming!

You know, it's been a long time since I put another new
book out there for you. I launched Chalk and Sweat all the
way back in December -- and volume 5 in the Legacy of Iron
series back in January -- and it's been very quiet since
then.

Nothing in February -- nothing in March -- gee, what's up?

Maybe the Dino Guy has gone on vacation -- or maybe he's been
pounding the keyboard 24/7, working like a madman on a big new
book that you are going to love.

A big new book unlike anything you've ever seen before -- with
many, many pages -- and photos -- and a killer cover -- and an
introduction by Bill Hinbern.

Yes, that may indeed be what I've been working on.

And I may even have finished the manuscript a couple of days
ago and shot it off to my layout and design team -- and that would
mean that it's being formatted for printing even as I type this.

All of which means, you might be seeing something new and exciting
in about six or eight weeks, depending on how fast we can get the
little monster finalized and how fast the printer can get it
into the production line.

Or maybe I've just been on vacation for a few months. What
do you think?

As always, thanks for reading, and have a great day. If you train
today, make it a good one!

Yours in strength,

Brooks Kubik

P.S. Remember -- Tuesday at 12:00 noon EST -- SuperHuman Radio --
be there or download it later on! March 22 and March 29. You'll
want to be sure to catch these broadcasts!