We all know I am a little obsessive about health and fitness. I get asked more about weight, diet and optimal performance than I do about my happiness and what makes me smile, and I came across some amazing information today. I wanted to share, as I always do.

Human health and physical fitness are important, crucial things to consider, and millions find them fascinating subjects to discuss, analyze, and optimize. I’m one of them. Millions more overanalyze; they make things harder than they need to be, and they generally get poorer results in the long run. Or, they may get objectively good results, but their lives are consumed by the minutiae of calories, miles, reps, and nutrient counting. I’d say there’s got to be an easier way to do things. There has to be a path that utilizes our big brains without them getting in the way. There’s got to be a balanced, rational method to obtain optimal health and fitness that successfully marries our tendency to think with our animal instincts. Getting fit and being healthy should be simplistic, intuitive, and, most importantly, enjoyable.

Does wildlife obsess over calories eaten or reps performed? How do deer maintain their trim figures and impressive athleticism without a dietitian and weekly personal training sessions? Conversely, why does the house cat grow obese and lethargic, while a bobcat with nearly identical genes stays fit? It isn’t just the simplistic calories in/calories out model. It couldn’t be. Wild animals don’t count calories. They don’t worry about eating before bed, or getting enough exercise to burn off that squirrel they had for breakfast. They just are. They simply exist in an ecosystem hundreds of thousands of years in the making. Evolution has made sure, by its impartial, unconscious hand, that the flora and fauna live in harmony with each other and internally. The bobcat thrives on rodents and small birds because its digestive system and metabolism evolved eating these things; the house cat gets fat because its digestive system and metabolism aren’t suited for grain-based kibble. If the balance is upset in a given environment, organisms die out or move on, but things always reset. This is simply how nature works. When thinking about how to optimize our health and physical fitness, perhaps we should consider how animals do it – and how our ancestors did it.

We’re animals – no one disputes that. We are subject to evolution and natural selection – that one’s a bit more controversial, but it’s true nonetheless. If you keep those two facts in mind while noting the lesson of the fit, lean bobcat, a thread begins to emerge. Shouldn’t the same concept hold true for us? Isn’t there an evolutionarily suitable, effortless lifestyle for us humans, too?

There is, and I call it the Primal Blueprint. It eschews complicated workout regimens, tedious calorie counting, and weight loss gimmicks. My Primal laws are based on a rock solid foundation: evolutionary biology and anthropology mixed with modern human ingenuity. I take what worked for tens of thousands of years throughout human prehistory and incorporate contemporary science to confirm its veracity. When you go back and look at the fossil records of our hunter-gatherer, pre-agricultural ancestors, you find that they were healthy, strong, and largely free of degenerative diseases – especially compared to the health of post-agricultural and even modern humans.

The result is an incredibly simple, incredibly effective way to live, move, and eat: eat the things our ancestors ate, get the amount of sleep our ancestors used to get, and make the same movements our ancestors used to make before agriculture.

Take Action

If you take anything from this post remember these two action items:

1. The ideal human diet should consist of only whole, unprocessed foods – meat, fish, fowl, plants, fruits, and nuts. Whatever you can kill, pick, or dig up and eat on the spot. This is what your ancestors ate and what your body is meant to consume.

2. By the same token, the best exercise consists of natural, full-body movements – lifting heavy things, sprinting, walking, swimming, hiking, climbing, crawling. This is how your ancestors moved and how your body is meant to function.

Amazing Results

The results of following these simple rules are numerous and almost immediate:

• The weight melts off, if you have some to lose, or added muscle appears, if you could stand to gain a few pounds.
• You reset your taste buds. Sugar becomes cloying; processed industrial vegetable oil tastes unnatural.
• You realize you don’t need grains, beans, and potatoes to feel full.
• You crave real food, and you realize that real food tastes good – better than anything you could find on a convenience store shelf and more satisfying than anything in a fast food restaurant. Hunger no longer dictates that you eat every few hours.
• You get stronger and faster, sure, but you learn to move again. You regain lost mobility.
• You get sick less often as your immune system begins to function more effectively.
• You take pleasure in real movement and become more confident in your own skin.
• Eating and moving becomes intuitive, easy and fun.
• The world becomes your gym. Can’t make it to the weight room? Pick up a rock, toss it a couple times, pull your own body weight, then go running in the park. As long as you can manipulate your own body weight, you’re strong enough.

Man is an opportunist above anything else. We love the easy way out, but we tend to make fitness and nutrition so incredibly complicated. Just cut out the foods we’ve only been eating for a few hundred generations (and do eat the things we’ve been eating for thousands of generations), drop the ridiculous fitness contraptions to focus on natural movements, and streamline your health. And don’t be afraid to turn off that big brain every once in awhile.

I am currently in over my head with endurance sports, but something I wanted to try for this winter is to do some really PRIMAL things. I want to forgo cooked meat for a while, not cook my veggies, put a lock on my microwave, go rock climbing and climb in trees. I have been going forward on a bicycle or running down the road for so long lately that I may have forgotten how to go sideways, how to climb and most importantly, how to rebuild normal strength after getting all leaned out for what I have embarked on. I am not saying I am going to go all in like this, but I am going to try and get close.

So many people do not know how to get healthy and fit. The gym will never give you what the outdoors can, and Woolies pre-made meals will never help you gain optimal movement or weight. Its just that simple.

Go on… be great. Be primal. Be what you are supposed to be, you animal!

Continue Reading →

I am not going to lie to you – all this training has me a little sluggish. In my first block for our crazy challenge next year I have racked up around 150 hours of training in the last 9 weeks. I have also got a new business up and running, and dealing with quite a bit of personal stress.

I have a rest week this week, thankfully, to try piece back my niggles into strengths and get back into the full swing by next week. A while back I was taught about anti-oxidants by my missus and whilst listening to her go on about Star Trek type “evil” things, the following was really the message to take to heart:

Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in our foods which can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to our body. When our body cells use oxygen, they naturally produce free radicals (by-products) which can cause damage. Antioxidants act as “free radical scavengers” and hence prevent and repair damage done by these free radicals.

Health problems such as heart disease, macular degeneration, diabetes, cancer etc are all contributed by oxidative damage. Indeed, a recent study conducted by researchers from London found that 5 servings of fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of stroke by 25 percent. Antioxidants may also enhance immune defense and therefore lower the risk of cancer and infection.

Why do we need them? Because if we don’t take them to combat Free Radicals, which make you old and decrepit faster than Usain Bolt on the corner in Berlin in the 200m final.

Another thing to consider is Carotenoids (hence the Star Trek reference):

In human beings, carotenoids can serve several important functions. The most widely studied and well-understood nutritional role for carotenoids is their provitamin A activity. Deficiency of vitamin A is a major cause of premature death in developing nations, particularly among children. Vitamin A, which has many vital systemic functions in humans, can be produced within the body from certain carotenoids, notably beta-carotene (Britton et al. 1995). Dietary beta-carotene is obtained from a number of fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, spinach, peaches, apricots, and sweet potatoes (Mangels et al. 1993). Other provitamin A carotenoids include alpha-carotene (found in carrots, pumpkin, and red and yellow peppers) and cryptoxanthin (from oranges, tangerines, peaches, nectarines, and papayas).

Carotenoids also play an important potential role in human health by acting as biological antioxidants, protecting cells and tissues from the damaging effects of free radicals and singlet oxygen. Lycopene, the hydrocarbon carotenoid that gives tomatoes their red color, is particularly effective at quenching the destructive potential of singlet oxygen (Di Mascio et al. 1989). Lutein and zeaxanthin, xanthophylls found in corn and in leafy greens such as kale and spinach, are believed to function as protective antioxidants in the macular region of the human retina (Snodderly 1995). Astaxanthin, a xanthophyll found in salmon, shrimp, and other seafoods, is another naturally occurring xanthophyll with potent antioxidant properties (Di Mascio et al. 1991). Other health benefits of carotenoids that may be related to their antioxidative potential include enhancement of immune system function (Bendich 1989), protection from sunburn (Matthews-Roth, 1990), and inhibition of the development of certain types of cancers (Nishino 1998).

Riiight…. basically they are your first line of defence against free radicals.

Now, as a guy who hangs out in lycra in the sun alot (not like this, more like this, albeit not much better) I need to be quite aware of these things, as they do take a toll on my body and do NOT help my long term plan of becoming a male supermodel at 50. You get it…

So this week I undertook the notion to get some quality anti-oxidants. I have long been a fan of Wellness Warehouse and their website is the bomb diggity, so I checked there and found something I particularly liked, called Phyto Organix. Check this out…

They looked about the best, based on what I could read up on in an hour this morning. Here is the low down:

Look at it this way…..

Simply put, good nutrition converts into vital energy, good looking skin, hair and nails, strong bones and great health.

Modern lifestyles don’t often allow enough time for healthy food preparation and purchase and we often end up eating on the run or without full awareness of what we are consuming. Besides that; pollution, artificial additives, unhealthy habits and a whole lot of other factors compromise optimum health.

To guard against the negative factors and to provide essential, vital nutrition Phyto Organix have put together 4 of the worlds super fruits in vegan friendly tablet form.

NONI FRUIT known as the Queen of Health Plants
The Noni fruit is known to be immune boosting, supportive of healthy cellular tissue growth, antibacterial, antiseptic and rich in amino acids

ACAI FRUIT from the Brazilian rain forests
Acai fruit is highly nutritious and contains anthocyanins, fibre, sterols, gallic acid, potassium, calcium, iron, protein, Omega-6 fatty acid, Omega-9 fatty acid, B vitamins and vitamins C and E.

POMEGRANITE FRUIT ancient symbol of fertility
Pomegranite is extremely rich in antioxidants, Vitamins A, B, and C, tannins, and oxalic acid. It tones the heart, liver and kidneys and is anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial

MANGOSTEEN FRUIT tropical South East Asian fruit
Mangosteen fruit has powerful phyto-nutrient antioxidants with xanthones. Xanthones are biologically active plant phenols with antioxidant properties to help find and destroy roaming free radicals.

Personally I went for the Pomagranite & Noni and went to their Kloof Street branch to go collect some. They are well priced, and look better than fat burners & sleeping tablets in your bathroom, both which can be avoided by eating properly and getting adequate sleep.

I will give you an update on how they are going and if the missus sees a change in my skin as I never notice, but she always does…

Anti-oxidants = NOT COOL. That’s the basic message here. Do something about it.

Continue Reading →

I often get asked why I train so hard, so much, or specifically, for what? Its hard and alot of people dont understand the investment we are making in ourselves when we are out there pushing the limits. For some athletes, its a daily fix, but for an extended group of people like myself, we are making a long term investment into our health, so that indeed, when we are 60 years old, we dont give up and become fat lazy old people who`re uncomfortable, immobile and suffering with all sorts of ailments.

I want to be an old guy full of vitality and life, brimming with the urge to discover new things continuously, smiling with the essence of life flowing through my veins.

Make no mistake, I dont train enough to get to my physical potential. I hover in the 15-18 hours a week training arena. I work a full day and I have to deal with people as my work, which is a draining enough experience on its own. To get to full potential, I would have to go through a process something like this: (more…)

Continue Reading →