A Primal Take on Body Image
Even with the close of the Primal Challenge and its final week of reader content, I still have all those great successes on my mind. Whether in photos, videos, or description, it’s incredible to see people enjoying health and feeling great in their own skin. This got me thinking about body image. It’s a loaded subject in our society. Occasionally, it’s a loaded subject even on MDA’s comment boards or forum. As much as we’d like to edit out the less complimentary, even judgmental threads of discussion, to tuck away the uncomfortable conversations, I’m not sure that’s entirely right. This blog encompasses everything about pursuing vitality and living healthily in this world. That includes the sometimes thorny topic of body image – both as personal experience and cultural backdrop.
Like anything in our world, no issue is immune from controversy, tension, or just plain difference of opinion. My one hope of course – and I know many of you share this – is that we speak with respect to one another, owning our opinions as solely our own, recognizing that we all come to our Primal pursuits with varying experiences and interests. We start from different places. We meet our own challenges along the way. We work toward individually determined goals that – while commonly embracing ideals of good health and vitality – may diverge from there.
These goals of course reflect what we want for our lives but also for our bodies. We may begin the journey wanting to lose weight. We want to get strong. We want to be able to spend a full afternoon hiking with our dog or run our community 10K. We want to be able to chop this winter’s firewood and still have enough energy for a bike ride later. We want to gain entry into the world of competitive body building or other sports. (Maybe we’re part of it already.) We want to kick a lifestyle disease to the curb. We want to show off a six-pack or rock a new bikini.
A couple of years ago I wrote a post on vanity – a response to a cheering reader onslaught (who knew?) after I casually listed LGN (“looking good naked”) as one more reason to go Primal. Since then the phrase has kind of taken on a life of its own. I stand by that rationale. Nonetheless, I want to go on the record saying that this isn’t some interest in promoting artistry- and computer-enhanced magazine type representations. (Guess what – we all look better backlit. Keep that in mind next time you’re redecorating the bedroom.) Besides, has anyone looked at a J.Crew catalog lately? (No, I don’t shop there.) Someone please give these young men and women a t-bone steak.
A couple of weeks ago, The New York Times ran a feature about Gym Jones called “The Cult of Physicality.”
Some of you may have heard of the club. As the article reveals, Gym Jones has been the makeover mecca to many a Hollywood star, including Gerard Butler, Henry Cavill, Jude Law, and an undisclosed number of Navy Seals. The manager, Robert MacDonald (a.k.a. Maximus) runs a tight ship and makes no bones about the awesome demands of the program. Any of us who have even seen his clients in a passing commercial or magazine ad can believe the results. The fact is, with massively rigorous training, people can do pretty astounding things with their physiques. (Of course it helps when they’re getting paid millions of dollars to do it.)
While a lucky few of us can achieve looks like those without entirely super human efforts, most of us would find ourselves giving up unreasonable amounts of time, energy, and focus to achieve and continually maintain them. The result would be too costly without serious passion for the form itself – whether it be for athletic or aesthetic interest.
The beauty of going Primal for most people is the great return on time investment – the incredible results they get with relatively modest effort but also the extra energy they gain, the better sleep they get – all of which makes their lives easier and in some ways more efficient. They have more time and energy for what they enjoy doing and the people they enjoy doing it with. Flipping the logic on that proposition isn’t a deal most people are interested in. And they don’t need to be. But if they are, that’s cool too.
For me, a Primal take on body image naturally revolves less around appearances and more around utility. From an ancestral point of view, utility was the originally intended source for selection interests. Certain appearances, yes, suggested a level of health or “fitness,” but they weren’t the final arbiter: function itself was. There’s nothing more real than picking up a tree stump, hunting down your meal, hurling a rock, carrying a child, building a home. Want body love? How about loving what your body has accomplished and what you can do today?
I think people who have been through serious illnesses or other life changing physical events may get this in a exceptionally poignant way. I know, for example, plenty of women who have had children and said it entirely changed their thinking. It makes you stand in awe of your body in a new way, I believe. You recognize your body as a force of its own rather than just a canvas for your own inclinations. Whether it’s licking diabetes, bearing and caring for children, recovering from severe injury, or working off major weight, these accomplishments should absolutely help define one’s body image.
Body image isn’t some static declaration about what you see in the mirror any more than a body is a two-dimensional still representation. Bodies move and do. They work. They lift, run, build, have sex, nurture, toil, and create. Body image, then, should encompass our full relationship with our bodies. Everything we do and accomplish with our bodies should enrich our image of them. Some of us add steps to pursue demanding sports or fitness standards because – well, we love it. No further justification needed.
That’s what I love about the ancestral framework of the Primal Blueprint. It’s all about a rich, vigorous, and genuine life. It’s about respect for action – for true, useful, and pleasurable utility. Here’s my endpoint. Primal takes back body image from the modern precipice of insubstantiality and unapologetically re-roots it in the world of authentic vitality and dynamic living. I say work it.
What’s your Primal take on body image? Let me know your thoughts, and thanks for reading, everybody.
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
OMG, this article couldn’t have come at a better time! I’m 5’3″, 129lbs and a steady 20% bf…it will not drop. I’ve been Primal/Paleo for over 3 months now (no slips ups at all – swear!!) and it is not budging ;/ It’s very frustrating when I see blogs all day long about “I’ve been Paleo for 1 WEEK and I’ve lost 10 lbs already!” I’m like, Geez, that didn;t happen to me – I went from 23% or so to 19-20%. I do Crossfit 6 times a week (I <3 it!) and I'm getting stronger every WOD! But i would think that being Full Primal would have dropped my BF to around 15% or am I missing something? It's a bit frustrating…
Don’t worry about numbers and focus on how you FEEL! Anything below 14%BF is unhealthy for women because that is considered essential fat. That is why women will not menstruate properly when they are below this. And as for others seeing more results, it is most likely because they had more bad habits to change. I know this is the case for many of my personal training clients and Boot Campers I’ve trained. Best of luck with your fitness goals and your happy and fit ever after!
I agree!! Women need to have fat for their hormones. Too skinny women aren’t cycling.
A tremendous message to send. You really sum it up: Authentic Vitality. That is what is important in life, not societies’ perception of who we should be.
Thanks!
I’ve been primal for over 2 years. I am in the best shape of my life and think I look about as good as any 34-year-old woman who has had a child possibly could. I also feel great and am overall happy with myself. But…I’m getting breast implants in two months. It’s the one area of my body I just can’t do much about, and I figure silicone is about as primal as the Miraculous Bra from Victoria’s Secret. Only when I’m naked, there’s no bra to fix what having a baby and 18% body fat has done to my girls.
Thank you for all your great words and your positive outlook, Mark!
Has anyone’s view of what’s attractive towards the opposite sex changed after going primal? Mine sure has. It used to be the standard hourglass (“BON-kyuu-BON” as they call it here in Japan) shape. Now, strangely enough, its exactly what Mark said here, and I find myself more attracted to women who look like they can DO things and have a good amount of strength and energy. Okay, if they have the “BON-kyuu-BON”, too, I certainly don’t complain, but the girls who don’t eat much to keep that figure are less attractive to me these days.
I always thought I looked good naked, alone in front of the mirror in that special pose that flatters all women, with soft lighting from behind. But I was a big apple. Now I am turning back into a pear, with strong legs, butt, arms and back. I think it doesn’t matter what size clothes you wear, it is the shape you have. And a smile ofcourse!
Sure, the Gym Jones guys look great and I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend that much time working on my body, but you know who I would rather be like? Mark, the unconquerable Dave and the badasses in the flickr photo stream (really though, it doesn’t get more badass than the GROK seal hanging off that truck in Iraq wearing his vibrams). Here’s what I know: I feel better eating this way, I’m leaner, I’m happier and I’m not as focused on aesthetics. That’s worth a lot to me. It has given me my life again.
Funny thing is, I’ve always felt that I looked better naked than in clothes. I have a petite, fleshy figure where most clothing tends to create lumps and bumps that aren’t really there. So I work out to look good dressed.
(If anything, it’s an even better motivator, because I can’t walk around naked most of the time.)
There was this foraging Native tribe long ago that were super duper “metrosexual”, if you will. European settlers noted that they smelled and looked better than civilized folks. The men would also spend a majority of their time grooming and cleaning, plucking out every single body hair with clam shells.
All I can say is: YAY! MARK! for covering this topic! I noticed all kinds of comments…some still obsessed with finding something wrong with their body…THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT EMBRACING YOUR body, LET GO of the tirade of “disappointed how you look naked”…We have these beautiful bodies- they are such a gift! LOVE IT, cherish it, take care of it, have fun it in! Woo hoo! LGN is in the mind- “proud of how I care for me!” attitude!
I am 42 and think I look as good as I ever have, and am one of those people who has always been pretty fit.
However – I started a primal diet mostly the past year and xfit a couple months ago and am going from a pretty good looking twit to a stronger, healthier and full-of-energy twit :>)
I find typically folks are motivated to change their body appearance via diet and exercise. If they notice results externally, they believe they are successful. Look at those J Crew models…success???
I’ve observed some people following this lifestyle (granted, reasonably newer to it) that appear somewhat overweight BUT I bet they are much healthier than me (stronger, better endurance, better immunity to sickness and disease).
Quality of life is my motivation. I think that naturally, the human body will form to the activities it’s exposed to and if it doesn’t look like a model in a catalog – good. I also like surrounding myself with those that can kill a hog, run it up a mountain and eat it over a fire :>)
The point of this article is better summed up by discussing the opposite case.
What is the body image of the growing number of obese people in this country and world.
In a word: Denial
And that single word has caused so much damage (and collateral damage) in so many lives for so long, it really invalidates any argument for the contrary.
Body image is intimately tied to self image, just as our body carries our ‘self’. Self image is what drives us to be healthy, good, caring, loving, selfless, honest, and ultimately happy in our bodies. These concepts are unassailable.
Great article!
To the people who can’t manage to reassure the overweight without insulting thin people, be assured that your snarks aren’t holy things, above the snarks aimed at fat. They’re just as rude and obnoxious, just as small-minded.
I’m one of those “sticks.” I’m very thin, but I dare anyone to be around when I eat and call me anorectic. I have a very enthusiastic appetite. And does being able to do up to eighteen pull-ups in a set sound “fragile” to you?
Word to the idea that the point of our bodies is to provide function, fulfillment, and enjoyment. I am new to this whole Primal Blueprint thing (my boyfriend is a fanatic) but the one thing I’ve latched on to and that has inspired me to begin changing my lifestyle and mentality is that I can feel and look good (great even…) by using my body according to its nature. I am now empowered not to succumb to the ridiculous, mind-warping lies propogated by magazines and ads which are invested in making me believe that I’m not good enough and never will be without their pills or fad diets. I am strong and vibrant and capable. And, my body reflects that every time I add more weight to that squat rack, or carry my computer bag, textbooks, and load of grading up the hill to my classroom, or see the look in my man’s eyes when I walk into the room scantily clad…!!! Thanks for the inspiration Mark and all!