I recently asked the fans of my Facebook Page The Paleo Network this question: “If you could go back and tell yourself a key health message ten years ago – what would it be?” What would your answer be?

There were hundreds of answers covering all sorts of aspects of physical & emotional health, here are some of them.

Quit grains

And sugar. This was (unsurprisingly) a very common theme. Here are some of the messages:

• No grains
• Grain brain
• Give up wheat
• Kick the sugar
• Don't eat sugar.
• Cut sugar n carbs
• Stop eating grains
• Put down the sugar!
• Don't. Eat. Grains.
• Go grain & sugar free
• Don't eat lots of bread!
• Don't eat so much sugar!
• Give up wheat and sugar.
• Eat less sugar and grains
• Don't eat grains or sugar!
• Stop eating bread and pasta
• Fat is not the enemy…sugar is!
• Don't eat candy or chocolate bars!
• Cut the bread bro and lay off the booze.
• Ditch the GRAINS, forget the SUGAAAAR!!!
• Fat doesn't make you fat. Sugar is the enemy.
• Reduce your carb intake, don't eat bread anymore!!!
• Avoid grains and sugar, they make you feel like crap.
• Give up sugar and grains. You honestly won't miss it!
• put down the loaf of bread and spinage dip!… I have a long list…
• Once a sweet tooth, always a sweet tooth! Cut out sugar from the diet!
• Stop all grain not just gluten don't look for substitutes there really enough to eat….

Easy on the vices

Alcohol and smoking also featured…

• Don't smoke
• Don't drink beer
• Drink less alcohol
• Ease up on alcohol
• Avoid alcohol better
• Don't start smoking again
• Don't smoke or hang out with those who do!!!!
• Cut the grains and sugar and it will be easier to quit smoking.
• Stop drinking alcohol it's poison. So is wheat dairy and sugar. Paleo paleo paleo

Fat?

I thought more people would have commented about body weight and body image…

• Stop Eating!
• Don't get fat!
• You're not fat. Eat something
• Being fat is not genetic and you're not big boned.

Ditch the soda

Soda and fizzy drinks were also prominent in your messages to your younger self

• No soda. No diet soda.
• Stop drinking pop and fast food
• Drink water not coke or coke zero
• To never touch diet drinks or diet anything and drink lots of water!

Fitness

Fitness was one of the most popular themes, with these messages being added:

• MOVE
• Stretch
• Do yoga
• Exercise!
• Weightlifting
• Don't overtrain
• Stay strong fit and fast.
• Don't quit weekend sport
• Start CrossFit. Eat Paleo!
• Don't ever quit sport/exercise!!
• Don't stop exercising because of pregnancy
• Put down the sugar and lift weights…. heavy weights
• And start yoga young to keep u strong and flexible !!!
• Keep moving…don't stop the exercise…even for a week!
• Paleo and CrossFit….if only I had discovered this years ago!!
• Don't wait till you gain weight to start exercising. Biggest mistake I made!!!
• Go to the gym & get a trainer/training partner. I'd be so much further along in my physical development

And perhaps best of all, the random messages!

There are definitely some stories there…

• Speak up
• Sleep more.
• Stay consistent
• Don't marry him.
• Pack it in. Idiot!
• Bitcoins! Buy them!!!
• Omg! Where do I begin?!!
• Put the candy bar down fatty
• You really are allergic to dairy
• Stay away from the chocolate
• Stay focused don't get complacent
• 27 is not too young to have babies
• Don't get the flu shot and go Paleo
• Your friends and chidren are amazing
• Stay away from snotty nosed children!
• Thank god u took the advice to lose 95 kg.
• Stress less, not a food thing but a health thing
• Don't ever stop, that's what I tell the youngsters.
• Don't marry him! Hahaha. I would Def be healthier
• Dont listen to your mother… and dont eat like her….
• Take the time to feed your kids and yourself healthy!
• Enjoy the small things! Work to live, not live to work!!
• Stop making stupid excuses and get divorced now !!!
• Nothing can be fixed until you sort out that zinc deficiency.
• The habits I have will be the habits my kids will have. Eat clean!
• NOTHING and I mean nothing, taste as good as healthy feels!!!!!
• Don't take hormone contraceptive pills and quit that stressful job!
• You are worth loving and you don't have to turn to food to feel loved.
• Don't sweat it me, you are going to look better at 37 than you did at 27.
• I would tell me to keep eating clean and switch degrees to sports science!
• Don't shrug off the little things cause sometimes they mean there is a big thing.
• My biggest down fall, closely followed by, avoid chocolate – it is not a meal!!!!!
• Don't get lazy and give up. YOU'RE worth the EFFORT of cooking healthy food!!
• Everything you've been taught about nutrition was false. The food pyramid is upside down.
• Slow down, create more homemade meals (organic) than eating meals on the run (processed junk).
• Exercise, laugh, set goals be flexible, action is the key to fruition, rest, relish silence, no sugar, grains, no dairy
• Take a kids cooking class to master basic cooking skills – especially knife skills & don't be bloody lazy about eating properly!!!
• Do not do the endometriosis treatment that your supposed specialised GP said was latest and greatest. It will ruin your health forever…
• Don't have vital parts surgically removed unless you've been diagnosed with a deadly disease and the removal of said parts is the way to eliminate the disease.

So over to you… what message would you tell your ten-years-ago-self?