I finished reading The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. Upon being diagnosed with Insulin Resistance, The Paleo Diet (very similar in concept) was recommended to me by one of our readers. Both books were on my Christmas list and I promised to compare and contrast both plans in this blog. For those unfamiliar, a primal or paleo style of eating, often referred to as "The Caveman Diet," is one free of, or greatly limiting, grains, sugars, and processed foods- the nemesis of anyone suffering from an insulin problem.
The basic premise is to eat foods that were only available during the Paleolithic era, thus before the introduction of agriculture and industry. The belief is that our bodies are designed to eat foods that exist in nature and are not genetically designed to eat modified foods. These days, modified foods can include everything from produce to pigs. Foods are modified to produce more "appealing" characteristics like a redder tomato that ripens without softening, a pig that contains omega-3 fatty acids, or a sugar substitute that is free of calories and cheap to produce. If you study GMF's you will observe that there is rarely a reason outside of profit for doing this. Any "good" reason is certainly trumped by the dangerous affects of having made these genetic changes.
The severe shift in human diet of going from eating whole, natural, foods to modified, processed, foods is believed by many to be responsible for diseases like obesity, heart disease, Diabetes, and Cancer. Both books share similar ideals with some minor differences. I chose to read The Primal Blueprint first, because the author embraces not just the eating style of cavemen, but rather an entire lifestyle centered around our early species development. He highlights just how far we've drifted from the lifestyle we as a species were designed to live. I discovered early on that his mindset aligns with much of my thinking which prompted me to read this book first.
Mark has written this book to center around ten primal laws. They are as follows:
1.) Eat lots of plants and animals
2.) Avoid poisonous things
3.) Move frequently at a slow pace
4.) Lift heavy things
5.) Sprint once in awhile
6.) Get adequate sleep
7.) Play
8.) Get adequate sunlight
9.) Avoid stupid mistakes
10.) Use your brain
Let me break the laws down as best I can, starting with "eat lots of plants and animals." Mark encourages a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. What makes his philosophy different from other popular protein-based diets like Atkins, is that he is not encouraging a completely carb free diet, nor does he support the elimination of many body healing fruits and vegetables simply because they have a sugar affect. Instead, he encourages you to eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can, while avoiding things like bread, pasta, rice, cereal, crackers, wheat flour, baked goods, corn, sugar, soda, and processed snacks. He distinguishes between proteins like wild venison and grass fed beef, versus heavily processed, nitrite-infused bacon and corn-fed beef.
Law number two says to "avoid poisonous things." This primal rule is pretty self explanatory. Mark encourages staying clear of heavily processed and preserved foods, as well as, chemically altered fats and sugars and of course, GMF's.
"Move frequently at a slow pace." I found his take on exercise to be very interesting. He argues that most Americans live either a completely sedentary lifestyle, or conduct workouts that are too stressful and taxing on the body. He says, put down the remote control and get outside to do some walking, hiking, swimming, and all-around playtime, and skip the regimented, chronic, high-intensity cardio that is inspiring too high an appetite for carbs, repetitive injuries, and a constant trigger of your body's fight or flight response. This one made me pause for a minute and go...hmmm....
"Lift heavy things" is based on the idea that cavemen would often have spontaneous bursts of intense physical effort like climbing rocks, escaping a predator, hunting, and carrying firewood or a heavy animal carcass. Mark recommends short sessions of total-body movements like squatting, lunging, pull-ups, push-ups, rock climbing, as opposed to long, repetitive, sessions spent indoors on weight machines.
"Sprint once in awhile." Try short, quick, bursts of running on grass, the beach, uphill, etc. when energy levels are high. Mark encourages some time spent doing this barefoot to help develop foot, ankle, and leg strength citing the constant reliance on athletic footwear has a cause for weaknesses in the feet which eventually leads to foot, heal, and arch problems. He also recommends plyometric drills or biking intervals if sprinting is not an option for you.
Law six is epidemic for most Americans. Too little sleep, restless sleep, and the dependence on artificial sleep aides is robbing individuals of good health and well-being and affecting public welfare in the way of stress related diseases and increased occurrence of auto accidents. Mark recommends getting more hours of sleep including taking a daily nap, making diet and exercise changes to encourage more restful sleep, and also creating an environment in your bedroom that is conducive to sleep. He recommends a departure from digital entertainment that can be counterproductive to calm, relaxing, transitions into sleep.
When is the last time you goofed off? If you are anything like me you pride yourself on your ability to multi-task, but is doing four or five things simultaneously really conducive to good health?? Is going at a one hundred mile an hour pace, seven days a week, really what's best for your mental, physical, and spiritual well-being?? My husband would ask me to watch a movie on a Sunday afternoon and it would be nine at night before I finally settled down to devote two hours to something for pleasure. Even then, I was "watching" the movie, but had one ear perched to hear the oven timer, the other perched to hear the dryer buzzer, and my hands folding wash. I just couldn't justify two hours of doing nothing when all these things needed to be done. How sad. At one point, frustrated with the number of times he'd been asked to pause the film so I could move clothes from the washer to the dryer he said, "can't you just be?!" We need to get outdoors, exercise, play with our kids, and have some unstructured fun. Number seven law, play more.
I think we've all recently heard about the health affects of not enough Vitamin-D, but did you know a lack of being outdoors in natural sunlight can also negatively affect your eye sight, mood, and interpersonal relationships? Let's face it, it's just not normal to be indoors all the time. Early man ate, slept, hunted, worked, played, and lived outside. Now we go from our house, to our car, to our office, back to our car, and home again, day after day, sometimes without being in daylight for more than five minutes. Number eight, get adequate sunlight!
Lastly, nine and ten say to avoid stupid mistakes and use your brain. Well that means just what it says. Our ancestors were reliant on their keen senses to keep them alive. One lapse in judgment and they could fall down a ravine to their death or become a wild animal's dinner. Now, have you ever noticed how oblivious people are to their surroundings?! They don't have a clue what's going on around them! It's a pet-peeve of mine and something I've been complaining about long before reading this. Most people couldn't identify a suspect if their life depended on it. Why? Because they got their head buried in a Blackberry, their busy chatting on the phone, or just so lost in thought that they are not even present. For example, our local celebrity fell face first into a giant fountain at the mall because she was busy texting on her phone. Really!? Sorry, but I am not interested in being a victim of a crime, an auto accident, or any other avoidable misfortune simply because I have my head up my ass. Nope! My brother and I (scarily similar) often joke about how few people could find their way out of a burning building because they don't have the aptitude, the speed, or the awareness to even know "hey, I smell smoke!" You don't want to know how many times I have pushed my husband out of a store, or have left a public event, because I have sensed impending danger or have observed an unsavory character about to do something I don't want to be apart of. People, learn to avoid stupid mistakes!
Tune in next time for part two of my review of The Primal Blueprint. 'Till then I will leave you with a quote from the author himself ...
"I am increasingly disturbed by the seemingly inexorable drift farther and farther away from natural, healthy, evolutionary behavior." -Mark Sisson
The basic premise is to eat foods that were only available during the Paleolithic era, thus before the introduction of agriculture and industry. The belief is that our bodies are designed to eat foods that exist in nature and are not genetically designed to eat modified foods. These days, modified foods can include everything from produce to pigs. Foods are modified to produce more "appealing" characteristics like a redder tomato that ripens without softening, a pig that contains omega-3 fatty acids, or a sugar substitute that is free of calories and cheap to produce. If you study GMF's you will observe that there is rarely a reason outside of profit for doing this. Any "good" reason is certainly trumped by the dangerous affects of having made these genetic changes.
The severe shift in human diet of going from eating whole, natural, foods to modified, processed, foods is believed by many to be responsible for diseases like obesity, heart disease, Diabetes, and Cancer. Both books share similar ideals with some minor differences. I chose to read The Primal Blueprint first, because the author embraces not just the eating style of cavemen, but rather an entire lifestyle centered around our early species development. He highlights just how far we've drifted from the lifestyle we as a species were designed to live. I discovered early on that his mindset aligns with much of my thinking which prompted me to read this book first.
Mark has written this book to center around ten primal laws. They are as follows:
1.) Eat lots of plants and animals
2.) Avoid poisonous things
3.) Move frequently at a slow pace
4.) Lift heavy things
5.) Sprint once in awhile
6.) Get adequate sleep
7.) Play
8.) Get adequate sunlight
9.) Avoid stupid mistakes
10.) Use your brain
Let me break the laws down as best I can, starting with "eat lots of plants and animals." Mark encourages a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. What makes his philosophy different from other popular protein-based diets like Atkins, is that he is not encouraging a completely carb free diet, nor does he support the elimination of many body healing fruits and vegetables simply because they have a sugar affect. Instead, he encourages you to eat as many fruits and vegetables as you can, while avoiding things like bread, pasta, rice, cereal, crackers, wheat flour, baked goods, corn, sugar, soda, and processed snacks. He distinguishes between proteins like wild venison and grass fed beef, versus heavily processed, nitrite-infused bacon and corn-fed beef.
Law number two says to "avoid poisonous things." This primal rule is pretty self explanatory. Mark encourages staying clear of heavily processed and preserved foods, as well as, chemically altered fats and sugars and of course, GMF's.
"Move frequently at a slow pace." I found his take on exercise to be very interesting. He argues that most Americans live either a completely sedentary lifestyle, or conduct workouts that are too stressful and taxing on the body. He says, put down the remote control and get outside to do some walking, hiking, swimming, and all-around playtime, and skip the regimented, chronic, high-intensity cardio that is inspiring too high an appetite for carbs, repetitive injuries, and a constant trigger of your body's fight or flight response. This one made me pause for a minute and go...hmmm....
"Lift heavy things" is based on the idea that cavemen would often have spontaneous bursts of intense physical effort like climbing rocks, escaping a predator, hunting, and carrying firewood or a heavy animal carcass. Mark recommends short sessions of total-body movements like squatting, lunging, pull-ups, push-ups, rock climbing, as opposed to long, repetitive, sessions spent indoors on weight machines.
"Sprint once in awhile." Try short, quick, bursts of running on grass, the beach, uphill, etc. when energy levels are high. Mark encourages some time spent doing this barefoot to help develop foot, ankle, and leg strength citing the constant reliance on athletic footwear has a cause for weaknesses in the feet which eventually leads to foot, heal, and arch problems. He also recommends plyometric drills or biking intervals if sprinting is not an option for you.
Law six is epidemic for most Americans. Too little sleep, restless sleep, and the dependence on artificial sleep aides is robbing individuals of good health and well-being and affecting public welfare in the way of stress related diseases and increased occurrence of auto accidents. Mark recommends getting more hours of sleep including taking a daily nap, making diet and exercise changes to encourage more restful sleep, and also creating an environment in your bedroom that is conducive to sleep. He recommends a departure from digital entertainment that can be counterproductive to calm, relaxing, transitions into sleep.
When is the last time you goofed off? If you are anything like me you pride yourself on your ability to multi-task, but is doing four or five things simultaneously really conducive to good health?? Is going at a one hundred mile an hour pace, seven days a week, really what's best for your mental, physical, and spiritual well-being?? My husband would ask me to watch a movie on a Sunday afternoon and it would be nine at night before I finally settled down to devote two hours to something for pleasure. Even then, I was "watching" the movie, but had one ear perched to hear the oven timer, the other perched to hear the dryer buzzer, and my hands folding wash. I just couldn't justify two hours of doing nothing when all these things needed to be done. How sad. At one point, frustrated with the number of times he'd been asked to pause the film so I could move clothes from the washer to the dryer he said, "can't you just be?!" We need to get outdoors, exercise, play with our kids, and have some unstructured fun. Number seven law, play more.
I think we've all recently heard about the health affects of not enough Vitamin-D, but did you know a lack of being outdoors in natural sunlight can also negatively affect your eye sight, mood, and interpersonal relationships? Let's face it, it's just not normal to be indoors all the time. Early man ate, slept, hunted, worked, played, and lived outside. Now we go from our house, to our car, to our office, back to our car, and home again, day after day, sometimes without being in daylight for more than five minutes. Number eight, get adequate sunlight!
Lastly, nine and ten say to avoid stupid mistakes and use your brain. Well that means just what it says. Our ancestors were reliant on their keen senses to keep them alive. One lapse in judgment and they could fall down a ravine to their death or become a wild animal's dinner. Now, have you ever noticed how oblivious people are to their surroundings?! They don't have a clue what's going on around them! It's a pet-peeve of mine and something I've been complaining about long before reading this. Most people couldn't identify a suspect if their life depended on it. Why? Because they got their head buried in a Blackberry, their busy chatting on the phone, or just so lost in thought that they are not even present. For example, our local celebrity fell face first into a giant fountain at the mall because she was busy texting on her phone. Really!? Sorry, but I am not interested in being a victim of a crime, an auto accident, or any other avoidable misfortune simply because I have my head up my ass. Nope! My brother and I (scarily similar) often joke about how few people could find their way out of a burning building because they don't have the aptitude, the speed, or the awareness to even know "hey, I smell smoke!" You don't want to know how many times I have pushed my husband out of a store, or have left a public event, because I have sensed impending danger or have observed an unsavory character about to do something I don't want to be apart of. People, learn to avoid stupid mistakes!
Tune in next time for part two of my review of The Primal Blueprint. 'Till then I will leave you with a quote from the author himself ...
"I am increasingly disturbed by the seemingly inexorable drift farther and farther away from natural, healthy, evolutionary behavior." -Mark Sisson
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