It’s Monday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Monday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!
At about 45, I was diagnosed with Palindromic Rheumatism. As an irrigation contractor at the time, this wasn’t good news. I could hardly go to my knees at times, then I couldn’t get back up without aid. Sometimes, my forearms would become inflamed, so I couldn’t turn my wrists even slightly. Let me tell you, one cannot install irrigation systems when this is going on!
Now, I was never overweight. In fact, I was always a hard gainer, so-to-speak. In order to gain any size, I have to work hard in a gym lifting weights, and eating quite a lot. (Sorry if this makes some people angry…;) Getting to the gym at times, also became an issue. The pain would come and go, and there was no pattern to it. I never knew what would ache next.
One day, I ran into a friend, who also happened to work for my parts wholesaler. Since it was the beginning of spring (I live in Canada), and I hadn’t seen him through the winter months, I was surprised to see he had lost about 30 pounds he had always been carrying. I asked if he’d been sick, and he replied that he had never been, or felt, better. With that, he took me to his office, and explained. He had also witnessed a friend’s transformation, and decided to give his friend’s advice a try.
Well, when he explained Paleo to me, it just made so much sense that I had to also try it. Within about two and a half months, I had lost 22 pounds of body fat that I didn’t even realize I had. To my surprise, I also lost my arthritis. I had been tested for gluten intolerance, so it wasn’t that.
What’s interesting is also that my friend also eliminated a lifelong battle with eczema. Pills, potions and lotions weren’t helping him. Going Paleo did. 100% eradicated. He is one fellow I can honestly say will never go back to traditional ways of eating. Neither will I.
Now that I’m 60, I praise the Paleo lifestyle, and I tell others all the time. I feel like a 30-year-old, and I can keep up to my 10-year-old, adopted son. (I also have a 41-year-old son.) It’s important to me to be around for him as he matures, as I lost my dad at 62. Thanks for your great website, and your commitment to helping others.
Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending more than three decades educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates flavorful and delicious kitchen staples crafted with premium ingredients like avocado oil. With over 70 condiments, sauces, oils, and dressings in their lineup, Primal Kitchen makes it easy to prep mouthwatering meals that fit into your lifestyle.