Until 48 hours ago, I had not seen a dentist for any reason in over 6 years. I have completely avoided fluoride toothpaste for about 4 years, and have avoided water containing fluoride as often as possible during that same span of time.

According to the dentist, I do not have a single cavity.

I drink coffee almost every day for going on two and a half years now.

My teeth are significantly whiter than average.

Apparently my gums are lightly inflamed. According to the scale presented at the dentist’s office, I am dead center average with this.

A regular cleaning should “fix” this, but I question whether the inflammation actually means anything.

I’ve taken about 5,000 IU of Vitamin D3 every day for over 2 years. I started taking a daily supplement of Vitamin K2 about  2 months ago. I continue to eat plenty of grass fed dairy, especially butter.

I brush once daily. Rarely twice. I always use fluoride free toothpaste with a bit of baking soda sprinkled on. I floss 3-4 times a week. I’m beginning to think the “trick” is to floss your teeth aggressively, while being very gentle on the gums themselves.

I often use a “natural” mouth wash, that I always water down with 1 part water, and often 1 often part hydrogen peroxide. I do this after flossing and before brushing.

I never eat gluten grains. I rarely eat non-gluten containing grains. My total carbohydrate intake ranges from 10-100 grams per day. I drink almost nothing but water, coffee, tea, raw grass fed milk, and the occasional glass of grapefruit juice.

Seeing a dentist yearly may not be a bad idea, but it may also be unnecessary. Fluoride is definitely unnecessary, and is likely harmful.

– Anthony Dream Johnson

Many that consider themselves “paleo” are not just looking for answers in the field of nutrition and exercise, but are looking for valid alternatives to conventional wisdom in other areas of life as well. Sleep, posture, cold plunges, and sunlight come to mind, but what about general hygiene?

Admittedly, this (a natural deodorant that works perfectly) is something I’ve struggled on and off with for a long time. This is probably due to not caring very much. I shower at least once, and often twice a day. I scrub my entire body with a natural soap — free of weird shit I can’t pronounce — and that’s good enough for me. My thinking has always been if it’s not good enough for people around me, too bad.

At the same time, I have occasionally picked up a “natural” deodorant. The ones that work, if only for short time, eventually irritate my arm pits. Most don’t work at all. Scented, unscented, etc.

Of course, I’ve searched for alternatives. Complicated concoctions like this were not appealing. Baking soda and vinegar was slightly more appealing, but I never got around to actually giving it a shot.

And so it’s clear, conventional deodorant sucks. As far as I’m concerned, there should be very little in life you are willing to layer on your skin that you aren’t willing to eat. Not to mention that the idea of forcefully preventing my body from sweating via an anti-perspirant always seemed aggressively stupid.

So … what’s the great paleo solution?

It’s mineral salt.

I picked this brand up the other day for $4 USD at Whole Foods. It’s supposed to last for a solid year. I’ve read online that it lasts up to 3 years, even with daily use.

The question is: does it work?

So far, yes, absolutely. Condensed salt in the shape of an egg with a little water works perfectly. Honestly, I am still blown away at how well it works. It worked within 5 minutes of the first application. Since then I’ve applied it once per day … and have had ZERO body odor. None. Zip, zero, zilch.

Do I smell “good”? No, and that’s the point. I don’t smell like anything. Kind of like breath. The best smelling breath to have is none at all.

So far, zero skin irritation — making this very distinct from more common “natural” deodorants.

Interestingly enough, it has a mild anti-perspirant effect, without any of the side risks associated with conventional anti-perspirants.

Overall, extremely happy with the purchase and the product. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It is super cheap, goes for years, lasts well over 24 hours per application, and is as natural as something can be.

It’s fucking condensed salt.

Assuming this stuff doesn’t cause me to grow a third testicle, I have no idea why anyone would use anything else. Mineral salt as deodorant actually fixes the source of the problem, rather than poorly covering it up for a short period of time.

The cost is lower, the effect better, and the associated risks are non existent.

Give it a shot and enjoy.

– Anthony Dream Johnson

The21Convention.com has been modified previously by Jonas Sandstrom, to the version most viewers are familiar with today. The website (link) recently got a massive face lift however by Jakob at JBS Webdesign. I really do mean massive to — it looks like a totally new website, yet remains structurally almost 100% the same.

If it’s not obvious, the new color scheme was largely adapted from MarksDailyApple.com. It’s not an exact replica however, given that the type of content Mark releases is primarily text, and the content released on The21Convention.com is almost exclusively video.

All in all, I am ultra happy with the changes, and I think virtually everyone else will be as well, at the very least because the site is now 100x easier on the eyes.

~~~

In related news, plenty of new videos have released on T21C. Per the picture, I found James Marshall’s speech especially awesome. One of the best on male/female relationships, being a man, and lifestyle design in the history of the event. Easily a top contender for #1 video from T21C 2011.

I recommend watching it immediately. Your life will be better for it.

http://www.the21convention.com/2011/12/12/james-marshall/

 
So far as I am aware, this is the single, best, comprehensive, video introduction to self defense and first time firearm selection on the internet. Everyone can learn something from it. Only more so if you live in the US or Switzerland and have the ability to privately own a firearm.

Here’s a picture of my new gun by the way. Similar to my old carry gun, but significantly thinner (I believe one of if not the thinnest 9mm handgun in the world), lighter, and to put it bluntly, a hell of a lot better build. If my old handgun was made out of plastic this one is made out of granite.

Florida made to! =)

BTW, here is the flashlight Bravo used in the video and that I now own and carry as consistently as my handgun itself.

I just got word that the newly released speech from The 21 Convention 2011 of London England, “Becoming the Gorilla” by Brad Branson, is going to be going out to some big distribution channels. Big big. Meaning, I suspect very strongly that this will be the first 100,000 view 21 Convention video, within 12 months of release. Perhaps even less time.

The video so far has done well. 2,600 views in 5 days. Not bad. But even so, the view rate should be skyrocketing very soon, and from there, going sky high. It should surpass even the great Doug McGuff 21 Convention video, which is scheduled to hit 50,000+ within 12 months of release — which will also soon be ranking #1 on Youtube for “paleo diet” searches.

Awesome? Yes, very awesome.

In any case, Brad’s speech is pretty bad ass. Check it out by clicking the picture. Thumb it up if you want to see it continue to soar.

– Anthony Dream Johnson

ps — Yes, that is king kong in the background.

 
Good video. Simple, nothing new to TDLers, but a comprehensive refresh and a good speaker for his age.

Found this neat article in the New York times. Here’s a quote.

If I were betting on the engines of future job creation, I wouldn’t put my money on college students cramming for tests and writing papers with properly formatted M.L.A.-style citations in order to bolster their résumés for careers in traditional professions and middle-management jobs in large corporate and government bureaucracies.

I’d put my money on the kids who are dropping out of college to start new businesses. If we want to get out of the jobs mess we’re in, we should hope that more will follow in their footsteps.

I mention this because it’s eerily reminiscent of my own life. As many of you know, I dropped out of college Spring 2010 when I failed “how to start a business”, for the second semester, in a row. Adding insult to injury, I had started a business from nothing at age 17, currently ran it at the time, continue to run it years later, and was the only student in the class both semester, to ever own and run a business — let alone do so alongside a full college schedule, during the class.

~~~

Will college drop outs “save” America? In a distant sense, perhaps. More accurately, man’s individual mind will save what’s left of America. Dropping out of college, in most cases, is merely reflective of this fact. College education in the American States being all but destroyed by government statists, altruists, collectivists, involuntary fiat currency, “student loans”, student welfare programs, and so on at this point.

You not only learn a whole bunch of contradictory, anti-reality information in college at this point — you pay out the nose in fiat currency created out of thin air, forced upon you to use via the threat of a gun.

What’s left of it anyway, after you pay into involuntary bankrupt programs like social security — which are more accurately called social bankruptcy — and of course, your favorite personal income tax.

All of which is being constantly debased by the federal reserve in the first place.

It seems to me young men and women are robbed at every turn today. Of what little wealth they have left, of their time, and of whatever mind they were able to salvage after 13 years in compulsory — meaning involuntary — school.

My advice? If you’re in college, in the US, you should seriously reconsider the path you are on. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, if you are in a lot of student loan debt, this only applies more, not less. Even if you are  not, it’s quite possible you are spending some of the most valuable and formative years of your life on shit that is a complete waste of your time. At this point, I would say you are better off doing anything else that is even remotely creative and an exercise in self-reliance, than attending school for ABCXYZ 4 year degree.

The only exception here being a profession you are 100% sure you want to do that requires such a degree. Even then I would very carefully look at the profession as it currently stands, and then attempt to project into the future where that industry will be in 2 years, in 3 years, in 5, etc.

Anyone entering college when I did for example (2006), that had even a basic understanding of real economics, would have seen the housing bubble nearing it’s burst point, calling for a serious reconsideration of a degree track in anything related to residential construction and linked industries.

– Anthony Dream Johnson

ps — If you discuss, or “god forbid” go through with dropping out of college for “whacky” reasons, be prepared to hear a lot of nay saying and criticism. I sure did, and I sure have seen a lot of my friends go into mountains of debt, only to leave college, be unemployed, take up jobs they hate (if they can find one), and be generally confused as for what to do with their lives.

Other than the default — more debt, more school, more soul sucking, and more time suck out of their lives — when they should really be figuring out who they are and what they want to do with their time on earth.

New T21C speech release — Tuesday, Thursdays, and sometimes Wednesdays — on online game for men. Meaning, how to meet women via online dating sites. It’s pretty bad ass, and the speaker is even more bad ass, fresh off of delivering a speech the previous day on tactical self-defense and the ins and outs of picking your first handgun.

Watch the speech here ad free or watch it on Youtube (Bravo Pua) to support T21C by watching ads. You can also download the video or Mp3 version for only a few dollars (check the descriptions at either link). This is awesome if you want to watch it offline or listen to it on your Ipod/Cell phone.

If you want to support the speech in other ways you can “like” it on Youtube and favorite it if it is one of your favorite videos.

~~~

On a personal note, my good friend Liam Banks has had some pretty awesome success in online dating — specifically after watching this speech live and in person in Orlando Florida, taking good notes, and applying it right away.

On an even more personal note, I met my first and current girlfriend via the online dating site Bravo recommends, Plenty of Fish (speaking of which, I would be curious to know what Markus Frind has to say about this). I always thought online dating was kind of a joke/waste of time, but after meeting Bravo in person and seeing what an awesome dude he is, I shut the fuck up and gave it a shot.

Low and behold, the first girl I met on there is IMO the most awesome chick on the planet, and insanely attractive. While this is not typical of online dating on either end of the spectrum, I have to give credit where it’s due — I would not have met my current girlfriend if it were not for Bravo and this speech.

And for that — and this is not something I say lightly or often — I am sincerely grateful.

Now go watch it!

– Anthony Dream Johnson

As I type this I’m at my girlfriend’s house. Simple as that fact may be, I’m almost speechless, because it is the ultimate testimony to the efficacy of Sock’s speech (link) on interpersonal relationships, and it is a profoundly personal one.

I briefly showed this speech to my girlfriend, and I don’t even think she believes me — that if it were not for this speech, I would not be dating her right now. It really was that pivotal.

But was it the primary cause?

No, the prime mover for manifesting the relationship, qua my own life, was me. This does not undermine the fact however, that the single biggest key to unlocking what I had already built in my own character, was this speech, it’s speaker, and his ideas.

His psychology pertaining to committed, long term, intimate relationships.

~~~

I know this may come as a shock to many of you, and I would like to verify by reviewing his work before stating this more concretely, but this speech is tantamount to what David Deida could have been and could have written in The Way of the Superior Man.

The ideas presented in this speech are the conclusions man comes to when he applies reason to his relationships — nothing being above reason, including all forms of human relationships. The specifics may differ from individual to individual, but the fundamentals are present and by my judgement, accurately identified in this speech to a wide range and even greater depth.

This presentation is in essence, what Nathaniel Branden would be delivering if he were still in his prime — author of The Psychology of Romantic Love.

~~~

Taking a small step back, this speech, that I watched many times over as soon as I received a rough copy, has quite literally, changed my life. The physical location at which I am publishing this post adds a tremendous amount of weight to this — and the urgency at which you need to watch this speech if the concept “intimate relationship” is of even the slightest interest to you.

– Anthony Dream Johnson

I recently came across a study (link) that concluded,

“The study, led by Northwestern University researchers, followed a large group of men in their 20s and found testosterone levels fell after they found partners and became fathers.”

I found this bizarre because personal experience thus far has demonstrated the diametric opposite effect, so far as I can discern.

In fact since I’ve had a girlfriend, my facial hair has not only “thickened” and become darker, I have new hair growing in places where there was none previously, and faster/longer where there was almost none previously. Specifically hair on my cheek bones, and in between my chest and (former) bottom neck hair line.

That’s right, at this rate, there soon won’t be a clean skin gap between my neck hair and chest hair – it will all be one big mesh of hair.

Excellent.

I’ve also been killing it in the gym. And while it’s difficult to attribute that entirely to higher T levels, it’s equally difficult to ignore entirely in light of the facial hair changes.

And while this may be TMI, I find it relevant that I feel significantly hornier now than I ever did single, on a day to day basis, no matter how much we see of each other.

Now, that study also states that those men also became fathers. Obviously, I am not a father, but I find this as misleading as the relationship aspect.

In fact I find it a little ridiculous and am highly skeptical of my body being able to figure out if and when I became a father – especially to the extent that my balls would produce measurably less testosterone (more than was abnormal since as I understand it, this is somewhat normal as men age past a certain point, leaving us to hope the study accounted for this).

I would actually be as skeptical of my body figuring that out, as I would be it figuring out the difference between fighting off a tiger and lifting a barbell or taking a particularly large dump on a particularly hot day.

Amusing, I know, but so far as I understand, our bodies simply don’t deal in terms of “tiger/barbell/toilet force production”. Going one step further, men don’t nurse children from the teet, or grow them from the ground up 9 months straight.

Unless you’re Arnold Schwarzenegger I suppose.

~~~

Moving on, I think this study is flawed for a number of reasons. However, there is a chief, primary one above all else, that is of interest to me today, which is that component aspects of the studied relationships were not taken into account, by any means, nor to any extent — and even if they were, it is highly unlikely the researchers would have had the first clue as to what to look for, and what to use as standards for their judgement on such things.

To forego this, is by my judgement, seriously fucked logic on their part, because the general population is as psychologically unhealthy as they are physically unhealthy (and the two are, past a base point, heavily intertwined IMO).

As in, most people enter into relationships for the wrong reasons with the wrong people. This is what you call “double fucked”.

Compound this with 25 years of wheat consumption, 300+ grams a day of carbs, 150+ grams a day of fructose, your weekly or daily alcohol binge, enormous amounts of polyunsatruated fat, consistent ingestion of hydrogenated oils, a severe lack of Vitamin D, other mineral deficiencies, and a persistence unrivaled in avoiding saturated fat and cholesterol – and it’s small wonder these people have crumbling testosterone levels.

Shit, it’s a bigger mystery that men are making it to their late 20′s cancer and obesity free living like this not just since birth, but since day 1 in their biological mothers.

Seriously, this isn’t rocket science.

But, it is aside the point, because again, my focus today is on the aspects – and lack there of in most cases – from committed intimate relationships that were not accounted for in this study.

For one, like most other aspects of most people’s lives, marriages happen for the wrong reasons every day because no one is fucking thinking. The divorce rate speaks for itself, especially when duration of the marriage is taken into account. It’s not as if people today in our culture are getting married, and staying married for 10-15 years, changing, and getting a divorce because it’s the rational thing to do.

Couples get married, put no thought into how serious of a legal contract this is, stay married for 6-18 months, get divorced, lose half their shit, find another partner, rinse, and repeat the process all over again.

I actually know people that have done this.

I know of another person right now who is going to get married because his girlfriend became pregnant. There can be no worse reason to enter into a legal contract as serious as marriage. Boiled down to it’s simplest form, it is in essence getting married because of an accident, and finding reasons to justify it later.

Taking a step back: at a common sense level, what’s more likely to fuck your hormone levels 10 ways to Sunday?

The experience of a failing relationship and the reality of a serious, serious error, subsequently losing half of your wealth, going through a strenuous legal battle, losing tons of sleep, probably moving, and dealing with all the stress in general of a divorce – or having a child in a healthy, committed, intimate relationship between two rational adults?

That’s like submerging your car in salt water and blaming engine failure on crappy manufacturing.

Taking yet another step back, even when marriage is removed from the equation, monogamous(ish) relationships that I have seen throughout high school, college, and beyond are typically formed for the wrong reasons (expressed in ways relevant to the age group), by people with antagonistic differences, and subsequently suck after the infatuation/novelty period ends.

Consequently ending in various degrees of “break up”, which ranges from a peaceful/uneventful ending to complete cluster fuck catastrophe that sometimes includes violence.

Nothing like a punch to the face to say “we’re done”.

~~~

On a more professional note, I am fully convinced relationships amplify what is already present in a person. I am also fully convinced people are attracted to others most who share a similar if not same level of self-esteem as well as general sense of life (the way you face existence on every level, from greatest achievement, to tiniest decisions).

Further meaning, people who have low self-esteem are attracted to others who share a similar level of self-esteem. Thus forming a bridge between two people who,

• have low self-confidence
• do not value themselves
• do not value their time
• are afraid to act on what they want
• are afraid to speak their minds
• are frightened to assert themselves in general

And this is just in the arena of self-esteem. Now think of self-responsibility and the lack there of of most people. Can you say dependent relationship?

I would even go so far as to say mutually-parasitic relationship, one expression of which would be a parent/child relationship dominating and substituting what is declared to be an intimate/romantic relationship.

This is a complete inverse of what a romantic relationship should be and can only be called healthy as – a relationship between independent equals.

Yet, I can’t count the number of relationships I’ve seen, young as I am, where one person acts as a parent and the other a child on a day to day basis and as a dominant aspect of the relationship.

What can be more destructive? Not much IMO.

~~~

While this is not a thorough examination of what it is to have a healthy relationship and an unhealthy one – nor is it meant to be, nor would I say I am qualified to do such a thing and call it complete – this post bears weight to the suspicion that the people performing this study didn’t take half a second to consider what types of relationships they were following.

As if feeling various degrees of depression, anxiety, confusion, dependency, irresponsibility, alienation, hopelessness, etc were meaningless in the face of testosterone levels over a prolonged period of time.

Such a thing seems absurd because such constant emotions are probably huge in determining the rate at which a man’s testosterone levels fall as he ages (secondary or equal to his nutritional and general health habits such as adequate sleep and sunlight).

Likewise, this leaves one to wonder to what degree does a healthy love relationship have on hormone levels for both men and women.

If raw sex can have positive psychological effects for women, what stretch of the imagination is required to consider that a long term, healthy, committed, intimate, supportive, adult, rational, conditional, mature, responsible, passionate, joyful love relationship has positive hormonal effects on both men and women?

To dismiss the importance of such a phenomenon seems, well, bat shit fucking insane. Correspondingly, this also seems like a gross reduction of humans from beings with volitional consciousness, to animals no more complex and no less ‘mechanical’ than a slug.

– Anthony Dream Johnson