My Wife and I Have Never Felt Healthier—or Been—Healthier

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!

Yup, success stories are back! And I’m looking for more. Follow-ups, mid-progress reflections—every story at every stage has the potential to inspire folks out there who are getting started or contemplating a new beginning. Contact me here to share your story—long or not so long. You never know who you’ll impact by doing it. Enjoy, everyone!

Hi Mark, I used to be a very unhealthy marketing agency owner. I was overweight as a result of years of poor habits in nutrition, exercise and lifestyle. I drank a little, pretty much every night, ate everything I wanted, but always felt bloated. I snored and suffered sleep apnoea. My skin and stamina were poor, I often felt lethargic. Sometimes my memory would let me down. I was a stereotypically stressed and ‘moody’ businessman and the wrong side of 50.

I regularly listened to podcasts (like Primal Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan). Occasionally ,one would discuss nutrition, and I started to look at the idea of food differently. Not as an art form, but as something more scientific. More medical and mindful.

I became worried about developing age related illnesses as a consequence of my poor habits. Things like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and especially dementia.

As a ‘marketing guy’ and a huge sceptic, I also recognised marketing was part of the problem. I understood how I’d been programmed to ignore what my body was saying, and listen to the ‘experts,’ sponsored by or maliciously influenced by the food and pharmaceutical industries.

For years food manufacturers had used marketing and lobbying to re-programme the way we as a society think, feel and believe in food and to economically direct us towards their profitability by changing and normalising behaviours that do not serve our health.

So, I began to listen, read, collect data, analyse and educate myself in order to plan a change.

I found and studied medical research articles on real scientific websites (PubMed) and read a lot of books on the subject.

My wife Jane and I began to change to a primal lifestyle, and have never felt healthier or been healthier.

I even managed to lose 80lbs in the process. Jane lost 40lbs.

The change was so dramatic I found people asking why, how, and to help them to do the same. I could bore people to death for hours on the science and answering questions.

I’m no fitness freak or nutrition nerd. No woowoo wally. At heart I’m a lazy lard arse.

I love eating. But I find so called ‘healthy food’ bland. I like drinking. But alcohol is not nutritious.

I hate exercise. But I want to be healthy and fit without having to follow an exhaustive, time-consuming exercise programme.

Over the hundreds of hours of study and years of self-experimentation, I’ve learned how to look healthy, feel healthy, live healthy and slow-down the ageing process and be physically the best my genes will allow—in the process cutting the risks to the most common causes of death: cancer dementia, diabetes and heart disease in the process.

I want everyone to experience these benefits as well.

I’m so passionate about the benefits that I wanted to share this opportunity with people like me and do it full-time.

So, I trained as a Primal Health Coach and now support the implementation of healthy lifestyle habits for people, especially ones that run businesses and their staff, because I can relate to their challenges.

Especially those that have little time, lots of stress and the same worries I had about ageing, weight gain and living a longer healthy life by preventing illness, and are possibly concerned their bad habits could affect the lives of their children, and their children’s children.

In the picture on the left (December 2016) I was 52. I weighed 260lbs. In the one on the right (July 2019) I’m three years older and I weigh 180lbs.

– Nick E.

About the Author

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 three decades researching and 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 Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.

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