The 10 Types of Paleo Followers-min

The 10 Types of Paleo Followers

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Since I started eating this way and got more involved with the Paleo community, I can’t help but notice several distinct types of Paleo Followers.

 1.       The Ex Vegetarians and Ex Vegans

I am always amazed at how many people fall into this category. To go from a Vegan diet, with all of the legumes and grains that includes; and complete lack of animal products – to the complete opposite; eating all parts of many different animals from head-to-toe and no grains or legumes?

When you think about it further, it isn't really all that surprising. Vegans and Vegetarians tend to be health conscious and chose what, at the time, appeared to be the healthiest course of action. It can’t be easy to make such a radical transformation, particularly as being Vegetarian or Vegan almost becomes an identity.

The 10 Types of Paleo Followers-min

 2.       The “I Want a Bikini Body/ Get a Six Pack in 10 Days” Group

Most of these people don’t hang around for long. They are looking for a magic super food they can eat with their usual meals that will make the fat melt away. Overnight. Paleo sounds like a good option – you can’t argue with bacon and eggs for breakfast and the premise that calorie counting is not required. This falls down because Paleo isn't “a diet”, it’s a lifestyle to follow for the long haul. Without addressing the lifestyle factors like sleep, sunshine, stress and fitness, it’s not going to have the same benefits.

A minority of the weight loss entrants do realise there is more to this lifestyle than vanity. Health problems reduce or disappear, energy levels increase and they realise weight loss is just a positive side effect – the real reason for Paleo is health.

 3.        The Scientists

This is perhaps the most influential and loudest group. We all know who they are! Instead of focusing on common ground, this group like to create and resolve contentious issues. Paleo must follow prescribed macro nutrient ratios. Blood tests and specific supplements are essential. A Very Low Carb Ketogenic diet is optimal. Carbs are essential. Cold water immersion. Safe Starches. Food Reward. Fructose. As soon as one debate dies down, another rises.

I'm happy for them to argue these issues out in the background, so long as it doesn't distract from the 99% of common ground they all share. Meanwhile, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, experimenting and exploring which brand of Paleo works for me.

4.       The Antagonists

There are both Antagonists within the Paleo community and those Antagonists alone in their Paleo adventures.

The Antagonists within the community are vocal in their outlandish views – and aren't afraid to call out when they feel someone in the community is not right or just. Provocative yet fun – and essential in keeping those in the community accountable.

Others followers come to Paleo as Antagonists. These people positively enjoying riling their fat-fearing friends, by eating copious amounts of meat. Without cutting the fat off. Or pouring away the excess fat. When their concerned friends and family try to intervene and push margarine on the Antagonist, they will be among the first to challenge their friends to a six-pack-off.

 5.       The Covert Paleo

These are the sneaky converts. They've been watching and mocking you for months. They've shot down everything you've said about nutrition and were the first to tell you what a silly idea this Paleo nonsense is. But you've recently noticed you haven't seen them eating bread for a while – and their skin is looking clearer and brighter? That’s right – they've finally realised you were right all along, but feel a bit too sheepish to admit it to you. Best to invited them round for a hog roast and say no more about it.
The Paleo Recipe Book

 6.       The Athletes

They heard Paleo might increase their performance. Despite being sceptical about avoiding the pre-race pasta party they gave it a try – anything to get an advantage is worth a shot. Amazed at the improvements, the next step is minimalist footwear!

 7.       The Formerly Unwell

There is nothing like being sick to force a change. Many people go from doctor to doctor and drug to drug. The net effect is often side effects from the drugs – rather than improvement of symptoms. Fortunately many people reach a point where they take on the role of detective themselves and question the role of their nutrition and lifestyle in their health and stumble upon Paleo and become avid followers.

 8.       The Parents

They may have had no more than a passing interest in nutrition – until they became Parents. Suddenly the responsibility of another person and desire to be healthy to bring the child up spurs them to find out how they can eat and live to thrive as a family.

These are one of the most important groups, with the power to influence the next generation – and the burden of trying to influence the outdated views of the schools and other parents they need to interact with.

9.       The Wannabies

These people love the idea of an ancestral lifestyle and being part of the Paleo community. They’ve even done a Whole30. Apart from at Friday work drinks. And business trips. And family meals. And when they were in a rush to get to work. And when they forgot to go shopping that time.

“Cheats” creep up from rarely, to a daily occurrence. A small amount of good quality dark chocolate occasionally, becomes a daily indulgence in cheap junk chocolate.

They aren't Paleo anymore, but haven’t quite acknowledged it.

10.   Paleo Fanatic

They follow all the key Paleo blogs and are quick to jump in when a friend ponders whether to go for brown or white bread. They find themselves tutting when noticing strangers feeding their children with Neolithic junk and often have to hold themselves back from commenting.

Their bookshelf resembles a who’s who of Paleo authors and they are on first name terms with their local butcher, who knows to put aside chicken feet and heart. Their kitchen is the frequent location for experimental cooking and a scoby isn't a cartoon character.

Which Type of Paleo Follower Are You?

I confess, I was a 2, who was starting to become a 7 – but now I am most definitely a 10 working towards a 6…

Did I miss any groups? Which group do you fall into?

Weston A Price Foundation Conference New Zealand Australia Events Sally Fallon-min

Weston A Price v The Paleo Diet

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I went across to Auckland, New Zealand at the weekend to hear Sally Fallon-Morell, of the Weston A. Price Foundation, speak.

As with the Melbourne Sugar lectures, the audience was full of people new to the concept that the government approved low-fat diet is not the right approach. It is great to see so many people interested in making changes to their diet and I find it encouraging how many people were in attendance.

I meet up with Julianne Taylor at the talk – and I also meet and spoke Paleo with Rodney Hide. There’s nothing like being able to have real-life conversations on your favourite topic, is there? After the talk Rodney introduced me to Sally, which having had her book Nourishing Traditions for such a long time, was a real privilege.

WAPF-Paleo-Weston A Price Sally Fallon-min

Whilst there are some important differences between the Paleo style diet that I follow and the WAPF diet, I think it’s more useful to focus on the similarities, of which there are many. Whilst I believe a Paleo style diet is the optimal nutrition plan, if anyone were to convert from a SAD diet to a WAPF plan, I think they would see tremendous health benefits. If they then went one small step further to a Paleo or Primal diet, I think they’d see even more health benefits.

There are a number of principles that are the essence of the nutrition recommended by the WAPF.

FIRST PRINCIPLE: No refined or denatured foods

So much SAD food is refined or modified in some way;  sugar, flour, industrial seed oils, HFCS and so many more. If people did just one thing differently, completely removing these products from their diet would surely be the most beneficial. On this point Paleo/ Primal and WAPF are in complete agreement.

SECOND PRINCIPLE: Every diet contained animal products

As with Paleo, the WAPF believe that a healthy diet needs to include animal products and an optimal diet can’t exclusively contain plant food. Organ meats were mentioned a lot in the talk as an important source of many nutrients.

THIRD PRINCIPLE: Nutrient Density

The primitive diets studies by Weston Price were far richer in nutrients than much of the food available today. Mineral content in soil is depleted so many produce just don’t have the same nutrient density. This is where selecting good quality food comes in. Organic, home grown and grass-fed all promote far better nutrient density than the same items produced from intensive farming. Again, this is completely in line with Paleo.

FOURTH PRINCIPLE: All cultures cooked some or most of their food; but always ate some of their animal foods raw.

Weston Price noted that whilst primitive cultures did cook animal products, they also all ate some raw. This came down to raw dairy, which, whilst I agree it is absolutely better than pasteurised dairy, I find a big grey area. The talk focused on comparing processed dairy to raw dairy – where clearly raw dairy is the winner. Excluding dairy wasn't discussed, which is the approach taken by a lot of the Paleo community, myself included.  My areas of concern with dairy are around the insulin response and the growth hormone IGF-1, which weren't mentioned at all during the talk. I’d like to come to a more definitive view point on dairy, so had hoped to hear compelling reasons why dairy should be included. As it stands, until I find more conclusive evidence, I'm still of the view that dairy is best excluded.

FIFTH PRINCIPLE: High Levels of Enzymes and Beneficial Bacteria

This focuses on foods that provide enzymes to promote good digestion & metabolic health. Whilst raw dairy is noted as a good source, the super-foods here seems to be lacto-fermented foods such as Sauerkraut. The take-away point for me here is on fermented foods – something I need to make a conscious effort to include in my diet far more.

SIXTH PRINCIPLE: Seeds, grains, legumes & nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened

This principle starts off in line with Paleo, observing how components such as anti-nutrients, phytates and lectins in grains are not desirable. Where Paleo excludes grains and legumes altogether, WAPF promotes preparing these foods to minimize the damage. As with the dairy issue, I didn't hear any compelling reasons why it is better to have grains in this form, than not at all. This is the main point on which Paleo/ Primal varies to the WAPF – whilst I’m certain people transitioning from a SAD diet to a WAPF would see significant improvements by preparing grains and legumes – I think their health would be far more optimal foregoing the grains and legumes altogether.

Weston-A-Price-Lecture-Paleo-Sally-Fallon-WAPF-New-Zealand-Auckland-680x450-min

SEVENTH PRINCIPLE: Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30% to 80% of calories, but only about 4 of calories come from polyunsaturated fatty acids.

This is a key point on which Paleo and WAPF are in agreement. I would probably promote this as the key point, since it concerns the importance of saturated fat and the dangers of the industrial seed oils.

EIGHTH PRINCIPLE: Nearly Equal Amounts of Omega-6 and Omega-3 Fatty Acids

This is also essentially in line with Paleo, stressing the importance of maintaining a good Omega 6/ Omega 3 ratio. This comes down to making the right choices in choosing quality meat and avoiding seed oils.

NINTH PRINCIPLE: All diets contained some salt

I think this point is hard to accept for people transitioning from Conventional Wisdom, where we are told how dangerous salt it. Once the processed food is removed the natural levels of salt remaining are often very low, so supplementing with a good mineral salt is very beneficial.

TENTH PRINCIPLE: All traditional cultures made use of bones, usually as bone broth

Another point I need to work on, bone broths are such a great source of nutrients, easy and cheap to make and very satisfying.

ELEVENTH PRINCIPLE: Traditional cultures made provisions for future generations

This principle was very interesting and concerns issues such as optimal spacing of children, nutrition of pregnant and nursing women and teaching nutrition to the younger generations. This seems to be all too often ignored or not considered in modern society.

Paleo vs Weston A Price?

I learnt a lot from this talk and it was a great reminder that I need to make sure I make provisions to include more organ meat, fermented foods and bone broth in my diet. I plan to make sure I include these regularly.

Whilst I completely agree that prepared grains are far superior to their refined counterparts – and that raw dairy is far superior to pasteurised, I didn't hear anything to make me consider changing my anti-grains, legumes and dairy stance.

What do you think about the Weston A Price principles? Do you agree with their stance on dairy and grains?

Butter guilt trip paleo diet-min

Butter Guilt Trip

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Here in Australia a commercial that I find particularly irritating, is for a brand of Margarine, MeadowLea.  Their advert is centred on concerned mothers promising to switch from butter to margarine.  If the product was pixelated out and the words replaced, you could easily think the mothers were pledging to give up hard drugs for the sake of their families – such is butter vilified in the advert.

The MeadowLea website explains how Saturated Fats are bad fats which increase cholesterol in the blood and should be limited.  They list fatty meats, butter, chicken skin, cream, full cream milk, cheese, coconut oil and palm oil in the danger category.  (I wonder how much longer until the lipid hypothesis is finally laid to rest?)

The monounsaturated and polyunsaturated categories – which they say can be included in “everyday healthy eating”, include margarine spreads, canola oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, soybean oil and cottonseed oil.  So basically they pretty much recommend the complete reverse to Paleo, as you’d expect from a company making money from selling margarine.

Think of the Children!

Their new campaign is to encourage Australian families to improve their diet by swapping butter for (their brand of) margarine – and once enough people make the pledge* they will plant seed gardens in children’s hospitals in Australia.

From a corporate perspective, it’s actually a pretty smart campaign.  They know mothers tend to procure the families groceries and therefore control the family diet.  They also know mothers are concerned about their families’ health.  Tying the campaign in with children’s hospital almost puts an extra pressure on mothers; it almost feels as though if families don’t stop eating butter, they won’t be helping out children’s hospitals – how selfish.  I also think tying the campaign in with hospitals will make people subconsciously associate their choice of butter or margarine, with ill health – particularly the ill health of children.  “Swap butter for margarine and we’ll build an animal rescue centre” just wouldn't have the same emotional pull, would it?

Imagine the outcry if a cigarette company promised to build hospital wards, if enough people converted their families from non-smokers to smokers?  Surely there is enough information in the public domain now, for substantial objection to the health claims of a margarine manufacturer?  Yet they are allowed to guilt-trip mothers into making ill-informed decisions into the nutrition of their families.

Butter guilt trip paleo diet-min

 Mainly Natural Sources

In case you wondered, the ingredients for MeadlowLea are:

Vegetable Oils 65% (containing 52% Canola & Sunflower Oil), water, salt, <1% (emulsifiers (soy lecithin, 471), preservative (202), food acid (lactic)), milk solids, maltodextrin, natural colour (beta-carotene), vitamins A & D, flavour.

I'm very curious as to what the mysterious 13% of vegetable oils is, that isn't listed?  Their site and labelling seem very coy on this.  But hey, “99% of the ingredients in MeadowLea are from natural sources” – so it must be good!  Using that logic, it must be positively healthy to add Petroleum to lunch, given that it’s a natural product from natural sources.

The typical ingredients in butter:

Cream, water.

People only seem to eat margarine because they buy into the health claims – I'm yet to hear of anyone who actually prefers the taste.  Once the mainstream come to accept they've been mislead on fats, I can’t see how companies making products like margarine will be able to survive.  Campaigns like this are perhaps an inevitable part of the companies’ frantic journey through the unwinding of the lipid hypothesis.

Have you seen the advert yet?  Did you feel similarly irritated by it?

*If you happen to look at their website and see the number of people who have made the promise, reduce the number by one.  I accidently clicked the promise button – and they don’t have a button for un-promise’s.  As much as I don’t like breaking promises, this is one I will take pride in breaking – starting with lots of animal fat for dinner.
The paleo diet weekend event sydney Australia NSW buy tickets seminar conference expo-min

Have You Booked The Paleo Weekend Yet?

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Note: This is an old post – the next weekend has not yet been finalised, but please sign up to my newsletter if you are interested in the next event!

JUST ANNOUNCED! Limited number of seminar only tickets for the Paleo Weekend; $145 for Saturday/ $95 Sunday or $195 both days!

I'm very excited to announce the first Paleo weekend in the Southern Hemisphere will be held on 12th & 13th May, 2012 on the beautiful Cockatoo Island, in Sydney Harbour.

Whether you've been living a Paleo lifestyle for a while, have been interested but are yet to dip your toes in – or are looking for a way to finally improve your health and fitness – this is the weekend for you!  To secure your place, buy your ticket today!

No fat paleo diet zero fat low fat-min

Why I Propose a No-Fat Paleo Diet

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I propose a Paleo style diet, based on a Zero Fat, Low Carbohydrate, Moderate Protein and High Lipid intake, when compared to a SAD diet.

I think it’s time to replace the word “Fat”, when discussing dietary fat, with the word “Lipid”.  A straight swap.  Find.  Replace all.

Paleo Dietary Fat Body Fat-min

Despite the increasing understanding of the importance of dietary fat, so many people are still afraid of it.  They would rather have margarine with 20 ingredients they can’t pronounce (never mind procure) – rather than butter.  They would rather have breakfast of 97% fat-free cereal, swimming in skim low-fat milk – instead of bacon and eggs.  They will only eat the leanest cuts of meat (with all visible fat trimmed of) in a wholegrain sandwich – rather than meat and vegetables.

When people talk about fatty foods, the word fat is usually spat out with contempt.  An avocado is not the image that comes to the mind of the average person, on hearing the term “fatty foods”.

Sadly the word “fat” immediately conjures up images of excessive body fat, rather than fat of the dietary variety.  Someone overweight is refered to as “fat”, not “carbohydrate overburdened”.  This negative connotation is, of course, going to make people think twice about consuming more fat in their diet.  If people are reluctant to consume more fat it’s going to be harder to encourage them to reduce refined carbs and make safe, sensible dietary choices.

What if we were to rename dietary fat?  What if all of the nutritional labels had to change?  What if the word fat only related to body fat from this point forwards?

Nutritional labels could detail the triglyceride, glycerol and fatty acid components of food products, with not a single reference to “fat”.  Or quite simply the word “Fat” could be replaced with the word “Lipid”.  Fat could even be called Steve – I don’t think the actual name matters – what matters is that it is no longer called fat, with all of the negative associations that brings.

Whilst I and most of the people reading this are interested in nutrition, most people just aren’t interested and probably never will be.  But these are often the very people who need to change how they eat.  They need to understand it’s the refined carbohydrates making them fat and ill, not the dietary fat.  To go a step further and make these people realise how essential a good fat intake is to their body, is likely to be a step too far.

No fat paleo diet zero fat low fat-min

If you ask the general public to play a word association game, starting with the word fat, how many would come up with words like health, brain function and energy?  I think the words more likely to be associated with fat, are along the lines of overweight, unhealthy and ill.  Associations like this do nothing to encourage people to increase their healthy fat intake – and decrease their carbohydrate intake.

I think people would react a lot more positively to advice to increase their lipid consumption, than they do when told to increase their fat consumption.  Perhaps with the word fat completely banished, the fear of fat will start to dissolve.

Entire countries have been renamed in the past.  Is it really inconceivable to change the term we use to refer to dietary fat?

Do you think changing the word for dietary fat would help to remove the resistance to consuming it?  Which word would you choose to replace “fat” with?

24 Mistakes People Make on a Paleo Diet-min

24 Mistakes People Make on a Paleo Diet

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Are you making any of these Paleo Diet Mistakes?

1. Increase Fruit Intake

When starting any “healthy eating” regime, so many people seem to make mistakes, like replace the junk food with endless fruit salads, fruit smoothies and snacks of whole fruit. Just because it’s natural, it doesn’t mean it’s a good choice. Fruit is very high in fructose, something that should be minimised to prevent inflammation, insulin response and ultimately conversion into fat storage.

2. Failing to Make Time to Get Organised

If you’re organised, eating healthily doesn’t have to take much time, but prior planning is essential. Being organised and having the ingredients you need at hand, meals planned and contingency plans in place for tricky situations (such as social events) is essential for success. If you find yourself hungry at a party you knew you were going to, you haven’t set yourself up to make the right food choices. I've just finished my first book, the Paleo Breakfast Recipe Book – the aim of this book is to make delicious Paleo Breakfast's possible and easy with a bit of organisation. I'd love to hear what you think of it!

24 Mistakes People Make on a Paleo Diet-min

 

3. Expect to Lose 20kg/ Gain an Athletic Body Composition in 7 Days

I read about a lot of people who are disappointed that they’ve been following a Paleo eating plan for a week and have not lost any weight/ changed their body composition yet. This isn’t “a diet” for short term cosmetic benefits – it’s a lifestyle you can follow for the rest of your life, leading to long-term health benefits. If you’re looking for a diet to get into your bikini in 4-days time (before returning to your previous way of eating and exercising), you’ve come to the wrong place!

4. Try to do Junk Food Paleo

It’s not realistic to expect to replace a junk food diet with paleo equivalents. Whilst you might be able to find packages food that are broadly Paleo these are no substitute for properly prepared foods – with good quality ingredients. There is a place for packaged “Paleo” foods, such as when on the road – but these times should make the exception, rather than the rule.

5. Keep Old SAD Foods in the Pantry

There might be hundreds of dollars worth of pasta, packet meals and bread-making ingredients in the pantry. It might seem wasteful to throw it away – but to really commit to a better way of eating, there is no place for this in your kitchen. Donate it or throw it away, but don’t “use it up” first, or hang on to it “just in case”. Commit. Get rid. Restock.

6. Overdoing Nuts

Nuts are Paleo, but they are calories too, lots of them. It’s all too easy to snack on a few too many nuts. Some nuts also don’t have favourable Omega 3/ Omega 6 ratios – another reason to go easy and limit the nuts to no more than a very small handful each day.

7. Being Scared of Fat

It’s probably not surprising, but after years of being told about the evils of fat, many people are scared of it. Despite reading and understanding the Paleo concepts, when it comes to eating, some people are still wary – and may cut the fat off meat, or cook in as little coconut oil as possible. I think it just takes time and reinforcement – make sure your diet contains adequate fat.

8. Ignoring Portion Control

Calories do matter. I read so many comments where people have been strictly Paleo, but are not losing (or are even putting on) weight. It’s not a correct assumption that you can eat whatever you like – certainly not when you are overweight.

9. Become Fixated with a Certain “Brand” of Paleo

There are lots of different ways of eating, within the Paleo spectrum. Some people may do very low carb for instance, and others may follow an auto-immune protocol. If it isn’t working, move on and try something new. To stick to a set prescription, which clearly isn’t working for you, makes no sense. Experiment. Find what works.

10. Let one Slip Ruin the Day/ Week/ Month

Sometimes things do go wrong. You ate something that wasn’t Paleo, by any stretch of the imagination. Instead of using this as an excuse to eat more SAD food, it is the perfect opportunity to start fresh and move on. There is nothing wrong with occasionally having non-Paleo food, providing it isn’t allowed to ruin the rest of your efforts.

11. It’s a Science not a Renactment

You hear people who start to question everything through Paleo lenses. Computers and modern medicine weren’t around in the Paleolithic era – so we shouldn’t use them? This may be true, but we have the benefit of modern science and research to combine with Paleo, to get the best possible results – it would be foolish not to take advantage.

12. Don’t Sleep Properly

Sleep is such an important part of a healthy lifestyle. I’d argue it’s actually the most important factor. Without sleep, you might be eating a perfect Paleo diet and have a great fitness regime, but you won’t be in the best possible health. Without adequate sleep your body mechanisms won’t function efficiently, you won’t recover properly from exercise – and you won’t deal with stress as well. Working out why you aren’t sleeping properly and taking steps to resolve it will work with your Paleo lifestyle to bring your health forward in leaps and bounds.

13. Trying to Make Things Fit

You know your morning skinny latte or daily glass of wine isn’t in the spirit of Paleo, but you try to make it fit (all those antioxidants must be Paleo, right?). If you have to justify it, you probably shouldn’t have it – at least not so often.

14. Avoid the Sun

There seem to be more studies every week showing us just how crucial Vitamin D is – yet so many people still avoid the sun and cover themselves in sunscreen at the mere mention of the word “sun”. Even in Australia, at the right time of day, for the right duration sun exposure is a good thing.

Paleo-Outdoors-Sunshine mistakes 680-min

15. Refuse to Cook

Not cooking seriously limits eating choices and will makes it so much harder to eat well. Cooking doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming – it can actually be relaxing, fast and very rewarding.

16. Turn a Blind Eye to Social Occasions and Restaurants

It’s all too easy to let a few poor choices slip in when eating out socially – but these can really add up. With steps such as finding out the food options in advance and not going out hungry, you can make good choices and minimise the damage. If it’s too hard to eat differently to everyone else, perhaps arranging social events that aren’t food based – or offering to cook for friends will be a better alternative.

17. Obsessing on a Weekly Cheat

Paleo should not be boring or restrictive – if it is, you need to introduce more variety and try new recipes. When a planned weekly cheat becomes the focus of your week, it’s time to address what isn’t working and fix it. With a varied Paleo diet thoughts of SAD food should be very few and far between.

18. Don’t Move

Fitness is an important part of a Paleo lifestyle. Whilst nutrition is a huge part, the importance of being active and lifting heavy things once in a while should not be ignored. Paleo doesn’t begin & end with food  tweet this quote

19. Don’t Take Measurements

When you feel well, it’s hard to remember how you felt before. If you have blood tests and take a note of your measurements and how you feel every few months, it will be obvious how well Paleo is working for you and what you can improve on.

20. Listen to Conventional Wisdom

Following Conventional Wisdom often isn’t very compatible with a Paleo diet and could get very confusing. Once you decide to stick to Paleo, it’s helpful to filter out many of the health stories in mainstream media, or just read them for entertainment value.

21. Fail to Read and Research

Those who stick to a healthy lifestyle seem to be those who understand the impact it has on their health. The more you read and research, the more you can tweek your lifestyle and improve your health. Following a lifestyle based on someone else’s example, without an understanding of the principles, will be very hard to stick to and follow properly.

22. Don’t Tell Others

In any change, it’s really important to have support. Family and friends will (hopefully) accommodate your nutritional wishes and may even follow your example. If you’re finding it difficult, having a support network is invaluable. Finding others following Paleo is great way of building a support network of people going through the same as you.

23. Not Persevering

Changing diet can be hard. Carb flu is a distinct possibility when moving from a SAD diet, to a Paleo diet. It might feel all too easy to give up at this point – when in reality a bit of perseverance will see this stage end and everything will get easier. Sticking with it, however hard it feels, however many mistakes you make, will be so worthwhile.

24. Hanging onto an Old Favourite

Diet Coke immediately springs to mind as something people often struggle to give up. Products like this seem extremely addictive, but certainly aren’t working with your Paleo nutrition towards your health goals. Whether it’s changing routine, finding an alternative – or going cold turkey, it’s time to let go.

What mistakes would you add to the list?

It's Dangerous to Quit Grains sponsored by Kelloggs paleo diet-min

It’s Dangerous to Quit Grains (Sponsored by Kelloggs)

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I received an interesting comment pointing me to an article on the website of the Dietitians Association of Australia (update: this has since been removed), all about the Paleo Diet.  The four paragraph critique questions whether there is any merit to this way of eating.  It concludes that they do not support the diet, as

It excludes nutritious core foods such as breads and cereals, and dairy foods

They are also concerned that

The Paleo Diet encourages restrictive eating – an approach that is not sustainable in the long-term. And by banning certain nutritious foods, followers of the diet will be at a greater risk of falling short on important nutrients, such as calcium. Like many fad diets, the Paleo Diet, is no substitute for expert, individual dietary advice from an Accredited (SIC) Practising Dietitian.

There is a lot of evidence to suggest calcium balance, rather than calcium intake is of crucial importance – something that a paleo diet promotes.  Sadly they don’t mention the other nutrients they are concerned about.  This would interest me greatly, as when I have tracked my daily diet I have greatly exceeded all of the micro-nutrient RDA’s (except calcium) by eating in this way.

They say Australians should eat a diet with a wide variety of food from all food groups; that meets their health needs; that is sustainable in the long term and that fits in with their lifestyle.  This implies that they don’t consider a Paleo diet meets these criteria.  I know I'm not alone in finding Paleo is the best diet for my health; very sustainable and fits in easily into my lifestyle.  The fact that it is restrictive in not including processed foods and grains, certainly isn't what I’d call restrictive.  I don’t consider grains a proper “food group” and I think my diet is far more varied than those who eat from the food pyramid.

It's Dangerous to Quit Grains sponsored by Kelloggs paleo diet-min

Before I let the inaccuracies and complete lack of research and studies bother me further, I had a look at the partners of the Dietitians Association of Australia.  It might surprise you to see that their partners include Kelloggs, Nestle, Unilever, Dairy Australia and the Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council!

Just to be completely clear, that’s Kelloggs, who make “healthy” high-carb breakfast cereals.  Nestle who make drinks, snacks, breakfast foods and confectionery – which for the most part all share grains, sugars and other un-Paleo “foods” in their ingredients lists.  Unilever – whose products include margarine and diet meal replacement shakes.  I think we can guess which foods Dairy Australia and the Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council endorse.

Sadly I think the more popular Paleo becomes, the more we will read stories like this warning about the dangers of a Paleo diet.  There just isn't the same degree of money for the food industry in real, unprocessed foods like meat and vegetables.

How can we trust an organisation that has a financial relationship with these partners, to give us true, researched dietary advice?  I wonder what would happen to their partnerships if they were to take a different stance on grains?

Sugar melbourne conference event seminar quit give up-min

Melbourne Sugar

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On Saturday I went across to Melbourne for a series of lectures on Sugar, Paleo and related topics given by a fantastic line-up of presenters.

Dr Rod Tayler organised the event and gave the first lecture, which was quite an eye opener into how much sugar the average Australian actually eats.  It’s quite frightening to think how much sugar most people mindlessly consume – something we have no real requirement for.

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Dr Ken Sikaris gave a fantastic talk about fructose metabolism, which I wish had been recorded.  He was a fantastic speaker and I learnt so much from his talk.  I really think he should speak at the Ancestral Health Symposium on Fructose this year!  I knew that fruit isn’t the wonder food that conventional wisdom would have you believe, but Dr Sikaris explain exactly why – and exactly what happens to the fructose.  I really hope the Paleo community get to hear more from Dr Sikaris.

Dr Anastasia Boulais was up next and gave a great talk about making the right food choices with a framework to guide this process.  This was a great talk, as I think a lot of people think it’s too hard to eat a Paleo diet – and that it’s an all or nothing approach – which just isn’t the case.

I really enjoyed Jamie Scott ‘s lecture about what Paleo is – and isn’t.  It was great that he also spoke about the lifestyle factors – not just what we eat, as the whole lifestyle is important, not just nutrition in isolation.

David Gillespie was next.  I read David’s book “Sweet Poison” when it first came out and found it so well written, that it became one of those books I regularly lend to interested friends and families.  It was really good to meet the man himself and to hear his talk.  David spoke about his background as a lawyer, and how he came to give up sugar – his talk linked in very well to those before and built up a compelling case.  I’m looking forward to getting started on his new book “Big Fat Lies”.

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Meeting David Gillespie

After the break, another familiar face took to the stage.  I’d met Dr Ted Arnold in LA at the Ancestral Health Symposium last year (there were a few of us from this part of the World at the AHS!).  He spoke about where we’ve come from and looked at the ever changing (but not in the right direction) nutritional advice and food pyramids.

We then heard a completely different angle from Alice Hucker, who spoke about the psychological barriers to healthy eating.  I think this is such an important topic, yet one that doesn’t get discussed very often.  I’d have like to have heard more on this topic.

Finally we heard from Dr Michael Axtens and his positive experience with changing his diet

I was so impressed to see so many people at the lecture – I bet just a couple of years ago filling the room would not have been possible.  There was a great mix of people, from those already following some sort of Paleo/ ancestral/ low-carb/ no-sugar eating plan, to those very interested in making positive changes to their diet and health.

A significant number of those in the audience were doctors, medical professionals and dieticians.  I spoke to one dietician who had been told about the event by a client and was very interested in learning as much as she could.  It’s so encouraging to see more and more of these people showing an interest in a Paleo approach.

It was so pleasing to appreciate the huge wealth of knowledge and expertise we have in Australia and New Zealand – I think we can definitely give the American Paleo folk a run for their money!  I can’t wait for more home-grown Paleo events!

The first Australian Paleo Weekend Event Conference Retreat Primal Sydney Australia Seminar Expo-min

The 1st Australian Paleo Weekend!

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Note: This is an old post – the next weekend has not yet been finalised, but please sign up to my newsletter if you are interested in the next event!

I'm very excited to announce the first Paleo Weekend in the Southern Hemisphere will be held on 12th & 13th May, 2012 on the beautiful Cockatoo Island, in Sydney Harbour.

Whether you’ve been living a Paleo lifestyle for a while, have been interested but are yet to dip your toes in – or are looking for a way to finally improve your health and fitness – this is the weekend for you!

I’ve got together some of the leading experts from this side of the World (including Jamie Scott, Dr Anastasia Boulais, Julianne Taylor and Dr Ron Ehrlich), to talk about all aspects of health, nutrition & fitness and to demonstrate and teach techniques to participants.  The Paleo Weekend will be held on 12th & 13th of May 2012, on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour – an absolutely fantastic venue!  The weekend will be fully catered with an amazing Paleo menu.  There is also the exclusive option for a limited number of attendees to sleep on the island overnight, in pre-erected luxury tents (it doesn’t get much more Primal than that!).

The first Australian Paleo Weekend Event Conference Retreat Primal Sydney Australia Seminar Expo-min

Attendees will: –

·         Learn about Paleo nutrition and health
·         Have the opportunity to quiz the experts,
·         Learn through a demonstration session how to cook quick and healthy Paleo meals,
·         Learn how to get on the fast track to peak sporting performance, by opening the door to their mind
·         Learn barefoot running techniques
·         Enjoy an early morning yoga session on the harbour shore to kick start the day
·         Enjoy a social Paleo feast on the Saturday night with like-minded new friends
·         Have the unique opportunity to sleep on the island
·         Enjoy fantastic Paleo meals prepared for them
·         Enjoy a life changing Paleo Weekend in a unique venue like no other!

Sessions Include: –

Cookery Demonstration; learn how to cook quick and easy Paleo meals at home

Barefoot running technique

Early morning Yoga overlooking the harbour

Fitness techniques – learn how to improve your technique and fitness – details to be announced

Paleo Nutrition lectures – on a variety of topics to be announced soon

Paleo Health lectures – on a variety of topics to be announced soon

Learn how to achieve improved health results & how to get on the fast track to peak sporting performance, by opening the door to your mind

Ticket prices are currently on sale at an early bird discounted rate until 31st March.  

Numbers are strictly limited due to the island licensing – so book yours today to avoid missing out!

Read more about the Paleo Weekend

I can't wait to hear your thoughts about this exciting event!

The Unexpected Way I’ve Improved my Training Performance paleo primal crossfit mindset gym fitness mental attitude-min

The Unexpected Way I’ve Improved my Training Performance

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Since I started considering the mental aspect to Training, I've found I can achieve more reps, better reps, faster reps and lift heavier weights.  It still amazes me how much of the hard work is down to my mind and not my body.

I thought I was doing everything well in my Training Sessions; I had the right mental attitude, the right pre and post workout Paleo nutrition and was focusing on good form in everything I did.  Well, almost everything…

I've been talking about the mental aspects of training at great length with a friend, who recently came along to an interval training session with me.  After the session he commented that he'd noticed in the rest between activities, my posture completely changed.  I would put my hands on my knees and look towards the ground.  I hadn't realised I adopted this position until it was pointed out, but after noticed that it was my default rest position after a high intensity set.  I also noticed when forced to pause a run by traffic lights, I’d also drop my shoulders and look to the ground.

I've been noticing a lot of other people in the gym adopt their own version of negative posture during their sessions too – sometimes even sitting down or lying in a heap on the floor!  It seems I wasn't alone.

The Unexpected Way I’ve Improved my Training Performance paleo primal crossfit mindset gym fitness mental attitude-min

“Slumped” positions like this enable the muscles to relax, which feels like a good idea, especially during a hard tabata session.  However, it’s logical that putting the body in this position signals that you are tired and resting.  When the rest ends a few seconds later, this is not an easy position to come back strong from.  In this position, lung capacity is significantly smaller, making it harder to intake as much oxygen as the body requires – making the rest period even less effective – and the following activities that much harder.

Since this revelation, it has been so easy to change my posture in the rest between high intensity activities.  As soon as I have finished my reps I stand up straight and tall looking straight ahead, never down.  I've found this posture makes me feels strong, focused and ready to get onto the next exercise.  It’s actually hard to think negative thoughts about being worn out and not able to lift any more when I adopt this posture.

How is your posture between sets?  Have you found changing how you stand – or think – has improved your performance?