It’s the lifestyle approach that is a step ahead of conventional advice and has cracked the code for optimal human health.
Applied to my own life, the results have been simply staggering.
Enough to make it my life purpose to help others do the same.
But what do we even mean by Primal?
Does it mean running around in animal skins and sleeping in caves?
Definitely not (unless you fancy it!).
We’re referring to a large period of prehistoric time when our human ancestors evolved as hunter and gatherers.
A time when we ate real, whole foods, moved our body frequently, slept and lived aligned to our natural rhythms, all of which fostered maximal health.
We were naturally slim and fit, and weren’t beset with modern health conditions that are sadly almost accepted today as the norm.
There was a big turning point in our human journey around 10,000 years ago, when we began to farm and domesticate animals.
It allowed us to settle in one place, form complex societies and develop civilisation.
This led the foundations of our modern world, though the change also brought some significant health issues.
The recent digital revolution has only intensified this, and we now face an obesity and diabetes epidemic too.
- SEDENTARY LIVING: People are spending more time sitting and less time moving their body.
- POOR DIET: People are consuming more processed and high calorie foods, available in abundance.
- AIR POLLUTION: Especially when living in cities. Respiratory issues like asthma and lung cancer are rife.
- PLASTIC POLLUTION: Waterborne diseases, enhancing cancer risks and hormonal disfunction.
- STRESS: Fast-paced, competitive, and complex modern life is nurturing anxiety and depression en masse.
Looking at the big picture 10,000 years is a snippet of time, when compared to the 2.5 million years of our species evolution.
Going primal as a lifestyle is about being guided by a philosophy that makes a whole lot of sense.
It’s not about a fad diet or new exercise phenomenon.
In fact, quite the opposite.
It’s literally the oldest health and fitness blueprint going.
The original.
One that enabled our primal ancestors to physically and mentally flourish, in a day where selection pressure and survival of the fittest was a real thing!
Here are 10 Primal Blueprint Laws from one of the godfathers of primal lifestyle, Mark Sisson.
With our impressive growth and incredible feats as a species, somewhere along the line we’ve taken a wrong turn in taking care of our own being.
We’ve traded our health and (natural) longevity for comfort and convenience.
And we’ve become lost and confused to what our bodies craves so to function optimally, and how to go about it.
Our hunter-gatherers ancestors would’ve lived with good health by todays standards, until the day they were injured or dropped dead.
Granted life may have been cut short due to harsh dangers, like food scarcity, man-eating animals or illness that they couldn’t medicate.
Though there was no slow and feeble decline in health and mobility, until they eventually hit the hay.
Being Primal is having the awareness of when it comes to health and optimal physical function our species really has become fat and sick.
And many prescribed exercise routines, only make matters worse.
Due to the elimination of selection pressure and the insufficient time-frame for evolutionary adaption, modern research confirms we are genetically identical to our hunter-gather ancestors pre-civilisation.
In layman terms, our genes still expect us to eat, move and play in ways like we used to, and to live in environments that provide similar traits too.
It’s about applying the clues from our most healthy past, to optimise our time on this planet in the modern world.
Taking the best of both. A dream team!
So, here’s the good news!
The genetic recipe to be a STRONG, LEAN, AGILE, and HEALTHY human is in almost all of us.
It’s our ‘factory default’ machinery set-up at birth.