10 Ways to “Get Primal”
Here at Mark’s Daily Apple, we advocate the Primal Blueprint Lifestyle, that is, a health philosophy that in large part acts to mimic the diet and physical activity of our pre-agricultural ancestors.
And, while we’ve explained in the past what it means to “Get Primal,” we figured what’s not to love about a bulleted list that reminds us how to incorporate these methods into our everyday lives.
Read on to learn how you can get primal on every level on every occasion:
Hike:
Whether it was searching for food, shelter or just greener pastures, our ancestors spent a lot of time taking the heel-toe express! (Though, it wasn’t exactly heel-toe in those days.) These days, of course, we have planes, trains and automobiles to get us from A to B, which means hoofing it has become our least likely mode of transport. To get back to the Primal Blueprint, set aside some time every week to participate in sustained activity as a way to return your body to its natural state (that is, being in a constant state of motion). And, although hiking was the primary modality for sustained exercise for our predecessors, feel free to substitute it for biking or any other low-level physical activity you can do for a long period with little interruption.
Sprint:
Although eat or be eaten is no longer really considered a threat in today’s society, for our ancestors, it was a pretty big (and potentially lethal) deal. The solution? Run fast, run hard, and run for your life! You can incorporate these same theories by adding a series of short sprints into your exercise routine (see Mark explain his sprint routine here). The idea here isn’t necessarily to be the fastest kid on the block (although that would be awesome), but rather to give all you’ve got for a brief period of time. Also, bear in mind that this concept of going hard and fast for a few seconds isn’t limited to the act of sprinting; you could try water sprints, power cycling, jump rope intervals or any other activity that requires short, intense bursts of energy.
Lift Hard:
Think Cavemen killed time pounding weights in a dingy gym? Think again! Our ancestors tested their strength only in real-life situations (as opposed to having a pose-off with the meathead in the cut-off shirt!) and grew strong by doing, for the most part, weight bearing exercises. Naturally, they focused on activities that would help them carry out real life functions. Want to work out like your primal ancestors? Try weight bearing activities such as squats or dead lifts, which our ancestors did when lifting a heavy rock or log for building; lunges, which mimic the action of transversing steep terrain or stepping into a throw; pull-ups and standing rows to mimic the movement of pulling a heavy object towards the body; pushing, to mimic the motion of… well, pushing things; and twisting motions such as medicine ball throws or cable woodchoppers, which our ancestors did when throwing spears or hoisting objects. For a new challenge (and an exercise that combines just about all of the above motions, try the Turkish get-up:
Ditch Grains and Sugar:
With the tagline “so simple even a caveman could do it,” the commercial suggests that our ancestors were, well, not the sharpest tools in the shed. But, clearly they were smart enough to shun grains and sugar (a feat that the majority of current day Americans have yet to accomplish). In fact, according to some anthropologists, our ancestors only consumed about 80 g of carbohydrates per day, largely because sources of carbohydrates – such as grains, beans and potatoes – are toxic in raw form. To keep it primal, avoid all grains, including bread, pasta, rice and noodles, and all refined sugar. It should also probably be noted that the majority (if not all) of processed foods are packed with carbs – either in the form of a grain, sugar, or both – so it’s best to cut those out too!
Eat Meat and Fish:
When dinner time rolled around for our ancestors, they weren’t exactly reaching for the yellow pages! Instead, they were reaching for a spear, ax or some other weapon to catch their meal. While we’re certainly not advocating that you begin hunting for your own entrees (people might talk!) we do recommend that you begin thinking about your diet in a way that resembles their dietary habits. That is, if you can’t catch it or find it in nature, you can’t eat it. In short, opt for meat and fish and don’t get hung up on the fat content. Not only is fat integral to health, it will also help keep you feeling satiated longer!
Eat Berries, Nuts and Unbridled Amounts of Veggies:
Again, when selecting foods, remember that you’re playing the role of the hunter and gatherer, so feel free to indulge in foods you would find in nature. Specifically, the Primal eating strategy recommends berries, which are low in sugar and packed with vitamins, antioxidants and other beneficial nutrients, and nuts, including walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamias and almonds (but not peanuts which are a legume and should also be avoided for fear of aflatoxins). When it comes to vegetables, seek out root vegetables including carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas and Swede (but not potatoes or other starchy, high-carb varieties), leafy greens, tomatoes and other brightly-hued vegetables (which not only add color to dishes, but also seriously improve the nutrition value).
Drink Water:
Although there is some back and forth about how much water our early ancestors actually consumed (with some anthropologists suggesting that early man got most of his water from the vegetables he consumed as opposed to risking his life standing in line with the other predators and prey at the local waterhole), the reality is that even if early man didn’t consume that much pure water, he certainly wasn’t reaching for a Coke. Get back to your primal roots by ditching the Gatorade, the soda (including the diet ones – they’re nearly as bad!) and especially the juice. All you really need is water, and lucky for you, it’s as easy as turning on the tap.
Sleep Smart:
When the sun went down, early man started prepping for bed. When the sun sets today, most men (and women) will do the dishes, watch Grey’s Anatomy, finish up paperwork, pay bills and check their email before falling asleep with the television blaring Conan O’Brien. No offense to Mr. O’Brien, but when nature starts heading to bed, so too should you. To catch Zzzs like our ancestors, remove all electronics from the bedroom and focus on creating an environment that is dark, quiet and serene. Also, while it might seem counterintuitive to not close the blinds, allowing natural light to be your wake-up call is far more refreshing (and natural) then waking to the shrills of an alarm clock.
Relax:
As much as we harp on about how hard early man had it (what with having to work hard to survive and all that), make no mistake, early man liked his downtime too! Unlike our ancestors, however, many of us tend to spend our downtime plunked in front of the TV or computer engaged(?) in mindless activity for hours on end. To get back to our primal roots, select an activity that will clear your mind and help you recharge and refocus. And don’t forget that part of this getting up and moving around a bit.
Crack a Coconut, Spear your Dinner and Sleep in a Cave:
Ok, maybe we’re kidding on this last one. But imagine how primal it’d make you feel!
mutbka, Jasmic, hrtmnstrfr, Bern@t, Genista, paurian, Snap, jahdakine, Mai, OnuRoca Flickr Photos (CC) and nightowl27 YouTube Clip
Further Reading:
My Knee is Killing Me… No Really.
Would Grok Chow the Cheese Plate?
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Posted By: Worker Bee
I found you via a post on Lew Rockwell and I am glad I did. I always knew there was a problem with “conventional wisdom”. I will be giving this notion a try and coming back often.
Lew Rockwell? Isn’t he the guy who wrote Ron Paul’s racist newsletters?
Since you brought it up, Lew Rockwell is far from being a racist.
When someone loses a logical argument, the easiest way out is to attack the credibility of the opponent… you’ve already lost the logic so you have no other recourse. In Lew’s case (and Ron Paul’s), his opponents have to attack his credibility since they generally lack the ability to win a logical argument.
X was right about whatever… but X is racist, therefore he is not credible. This fallacy was used in the case of Lew Rockwell. If actually read the article that was written, you’ll notice that there is solid logic behind it. since they could not attack the logic, they called him a racist to discredit him.
@Erik
Yet nowhere in your reply do you deny that Lew Rockwell wrote Ron Paul’s racist newsletters. Interesting.
I believe that’s called ad hominem.
I found this site also through Lew Rockwell.
Stonesick, wherefore the hateful smearing of LewRockwell’s good name?
“When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.”
Jonathan Swift
I love the idea of getting to bed early, when the birds rest, but what do you do in the winter when there are very few hours of light?
Good article, Mark! I am trying to lose 80~ lbs and so far I’ve lost 8 lbs sticking to your ‘diet’ with a few exceptions – I refuse to drink tap water and all the chems, pharms, and neurotoxi ns in it. I occasionally soak oats overnight for breakfast. I also do not vaccinate my children. We quit using toothpastes with glycerin and my children’s tiny cavities disappeared. I love my raw milk, yogurts and raw cheeses and wouldn’t give them up even if the agri-cops came to take them away. Keep up the good work! BTW- the kids love the primal work outs right beside me- or over my shoulder like a ‘kill’
I’ve stopped using popular toothpastes and I started use a special rather pricey toothpaste with some Indian herb in it. I can’t go back to the chemical laden toothpastes I was using before. I can’t believe I ever brushed my teeth with that stuff.
the whole movement is based on old genetics and flawed anthropology.
Ancient man was designed for a Garden.
Genetically, there is adaptability built into the genes, so that they are invoked or suppressed by environmental changes.
There are good reasons to exercise and to eat right, but trying to be a cave man based on some mythological past, is silly.
Besides, we are here primarily to find God and become a partaker of His nature. The whole movement is obsessed with physicality.
Therre is nothing about trying to be a caveman and you provide no examples of a historical error here I must question the whole “based on a mythological past” thing. As far as finding God, there’s no proof that he/she/it/whatever really exists.
Like your articles. Speaking of circadian rhythms, I heard that the natural cycle is 25 hours, not 24 so the best work cycle is 8 daytime work days, 8 afternoon workdays and 8 nightime. Then start all over again. Did it for a while and surprisingly it works. Rotating schedules should be the best way for a company to use it’s workforce and keep people healthy and focused.
While I appreciate what you are doing with the promotion of lifelong physical fitness, I have some major questions and disagreements about the movement you are, pardon the pun, spearheading.
It seems that because early man didn’t live very long, we don’t know that he wouldn’t have had cancer or heart disease, etc., later in life.
What do you say to the research of T.Colin Campbell, PhD, who showed in peer-reviewed experiments that animal protein turns on the promotion of cancer cell growth — and vegetable-source protein does not? Read “The China Study” or Google him.
I don’t understand the aversion to grains. I do quite well on an almost-vegan diet with lots of whole grains, beans, and low-glycemic bread.
A study of the teachings at the heart of most of the world’s religions advocates kindness to animals and even outright vegetarianism. I find the Paleo diet a move back toward savagery, not forward toward human evolution.
The physiological set-up of our teeth and digestive system as described by Dr. John McDougall, and others, is designed to digest carbohydrates, not meat. Our closest primate relatives, the chimps, eat very little animal-flesh or insects.
The Book of Genesis, not that I take it strictly, tells us that the intended diet for mankind was fruits and seeds and plants. There is no mention of animal eating in the Garden. It was only after the Fall of Man into fratricide and violating the rules of the Creator that meat-eating and animal sacrifices became accepted by the Hebrews.
I agree with much of what you say about the terrible junk food modern diet, but meat is a big part of the problems it causes.
What do you say to all this? Thanks.
You must be new to reference the china study. It’s been debunked here so often people don’t even want to talk about it any more.
If grains etc. work for you then you should keep at them. Many people find the reverse to be true. Most of your other arguments have also been addressed elsewhere on this blog, so keep looking if you really want to know.
i don’t know what you think, but our closest relatives are the omnivorous cro-magnon and carnivorous neanderthal, not the omnivorous (NOT herbivorous) chimps.
This article is a load of shit when it talks about diet. We are primates. Our closest primate relative is the Bonobo. Check them out. They are vegetarians.
Bonobos and Chimps both are our closest primate relatives and neither is vegetarian. They mostly subsist on plant matter but they supplement with meat. Chimps eat monkeys sometimes which sort of seems like cannibalism though that isn’t actually what it is.
This site and many similar ones probably do make it seem like we ate a lot more meat than we ever actually did when in a tribal mode.
If you read The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond, he makes a convincing argument that, except for the first to wander into an area unfamiliar with humans, our meat consumption was probably quite occasional. The basis of this opinion can best be summed up as follows:
Hunting is really, really, really flippin’ hard.
our closest relatives are the cro- magnon (omnivore), then the neanderthal (carnivore). our closest LIVING primate relatives are the bonobo (OMNIVORE) and chimp (OMNIVORE).
I am pretty sure it is understood that we were all talking about extant species. In fact, that was so obvious to me that I initially thought you were being really nitpicky to point out the distinction twice.
Then I thought you might think that those closer relatives would edify us on this topic, that the Neanderthal diet is somehow more relevant than the chimp diet because of the shorter genetic distance.
The dietary habits of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon man are less certain than our own dietary habits circa the Great Leap Forward. Since this debate is about the latter, the former isn’t helpful.
The dietary habits of chimps is very helpful because we are far more certain of their habits than we are of our own 50,000 years ago. That’s what makes it informative. Huge amounts of direct, observable data.
Being related doesn’t mean we need the same diet anyway. Look at the Panda,(99% bamboo) and the Spectacled Bear (5% meat, no bamboo especially) and they are closest to each other. It’s, you know, all part of becoming a different species.
Plus, it’s interesting when diets are analyzed how much they miss stuff like insects etc. And once I saw that the fish eaten by a primitive people’s hadn’t been included as “hunting” because the women caught them. Often the charts they use to figure macronutrients in the diet only include the muscles and don’t account for organ meats or marrow. Another set of researchers reduced the amount of coconut fat in the Thai diet because they didn’t believe it was possible to be healthy on that amount of saturated fats. And on and on. It seems incredibly hard to get numbers that aren’t heavily influenced by the researcher’s point of view.
I never said being related meant we need the same diet. Nor did I ever say that the Neanderthal diet is more relevant than the chimp diet. Nor did I say that Chimp diets were not informative. Please do not put words in my mouth.
The problem with the Paleo diet is that it ignores all the good work nutritionists have done to improve our understanding of “optimum nutrition”. But, saying that, it is certainly the most logical diet plan in my opinion for the average overweight person.
Humans are omnivores, natural protein would have come from grubs and shellfish rather than cows and salmon though, but apart from that, protein has animal always been key to our development.
I saw your video on your site. You’re just a few years older than Mark Sisson?
Primal it is…
This reply was meant to be to Paul Kemp (below)
Mark,
thanks a lot for your great site! I discovered it via lewrockwell.com and I really like what I see. I’m obese and need to lose many pounds to get back in shape. I always followed the old blueprint of avoiding fat and thus loaded my plates with tons of pasta, potatoes and bread. (And yes, of course soda, gummi bears, cake and other sweets).
Whether or not you agree with all aspects of the primal lifestyle specifically, you need to admit that cutting out or drastically reducing your portions of grains seems to be an important step for many nutritionists.
I cut out entirely soda, cut back my grain portions and started to eat a lot of fresh vegetables and seafood, both of which I had treated stepmotherly before. So I “discovered” new yummy foods such as lamb’s lettuce or crayfish tails, which I had shunned before. And it works. In the last few weeks I have already lost some pounds.
I have a question about a dairy product: whey. Would you recommend including it in your diet? (Sorry if that has been explained before, but I haven’t found it.) Anyways, thanks a lot for your great page!
Oh yes, and about that “I only need to run faster than you” thing – besides the fact that it’s not really a sign of comradeship among the members of a tribe – Predators first choose their victims, then go for them! So if a horde of lions chooses you as their victim (and usually lions hunt in a horde!), then you’ll have to run faster than all these lions!
Okay, after reading Paleo Diet and reading numerous comments on here, I have a few questions I want to be cleared up.
For one, why is it that PB allow things like dairy in it? Mark advocates butter and yogurt consumption, which baffles me somewhat. I can’t imagine that our ancestors would be eating either.
Second, just to clarify, meat consumption (regardless of how fat), eggs, veggies, nuts (does Cashew count? It’s not on the regular grocery list…why? Also, why not soy?), and fruits are given an a-okay on this diet. Am I correct?
And third, I’ve been on this diet recently (for the past 2 days actually), and I haven’t been able to curb my sugar cravings. But I’ve had enough self-control to prevent myself from consuming it. How do you suggest I go about tamping it down?
Support your local organic farmers for pesticide free vegetables and fresh eggs. Drink raw milk and kefir for your limited dairy intake. Buy their meat from pasture-fed, free roaming animals. Hell, start hunting if it floats your boat. Learn how to build a small house so we might actually have some land left to hunt and fish on. Most modern men are soft and weak!
Hello Mark and i can’t never thank you enough for your site and book for you have changed my life.A question: I live in a very short budget and can’t afford to buy most of the foods you list for the primal living.Can you please list some foods that are not so expensive.I love to cook and i cook all of my family meals daily.We never go out to eat and my family refuse to eat fast foods or “junk” which is great.Who can tell of a tennager do not liking fast foods? I DO!Please help me since we are really trying to eat,live healthy,work out and everyhting primal.Ps:Excuse my english is not the best i hope i was able to explain myself in this comment.Thank you and good luck to all primals in our journey to a better,healthier living.
Didn’t Noah live past 900 yrs old?
As for me, ditching grains is the most difficult part. It’s fairly easy to eat more vegetables and fruits, but it’s harder to give up pasta or rice. Fortunately rice isn’t as unhealthy as pasta or white bread (which I’ve already given up). I try to eat as healthy as possible and I think that’s the key to success – step by step, one improvement at a time.
When science, religions, and common sense agree, I find that to be the truth.
As I said in my comment, I don’t take the Bible literally, as in “The world was created in seven days.” It is a story written by men, but inspired by some universal truths.
You have to be able to read between the lines to understand its deeper meaning.
There should be no contradiction between science and the gist of the story the various sacred books tell.
Doesn’t anyone posting here find it interesting that so many spiritual teachers and great thinkers advocated eating a plant-based diet? Pythagoras, Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Buddha, Zoroaster, Gandhi. The list goes on and on.
I just stumbled in here from seeing Mark’s article on LewRockwell.com, to see what’s going on with this Paleo diet. We’re all just placing bets that we are choosing the right way to eat and live. We’ll see in twenty years how it all works out.
Your list of great thinkers is an appeal to irrelevant authority. You do not give any reason not to take the bible literally.
Why should religion be relevant anyway?