This post was supposed to be a brief review of one book, but the more I wrote, the more the idea expanded. I was planning on breaking it into a few sections to post separately, but after working on it for a while (and naming the saved file on my computer as “megahealthpost.txt”), I decided I liked the idea of one mega-post. This is mega-health.
I find the health and diet shelves of Lemuria to be one of the most overwhelming sections in the store. I’m fascinated by the variety of plans and programs available, and it’s not difficult to pick up two books with directly contradictory advice on how to lose weight or improve your health. Every time a popular new health or diet book arrives in the store, I’ll take a look, but I almost always reject the concept for some reason or another: too restrictive (nothing but kale and spinach, really?), too unreasonable (you want me to weigh my food on a scale?), too spurious (the birth order diet), or a too attractive (the bacon diet!).
The books that usually catch my attention are the ones that deal with gluten, grains, and sugars, as I’ve begun to suspect that I’m a bit sensitive to those things that produce the biggest, fastest insulin response. This is what led me to The Primal Blueprint. It is similar to other “ancestral diet” books like the Paleo Diet, but instead of just teaching you about what and what not to eat, Mark Sisson covers a broader spectrum of healthy living: diet, exercise, work and rest habits, mental health, and so on. The main diet plan involves cutting out almost all grains and sugars — and stocking up on meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. This is right up my alley.
Perhaps what I appreciate most about the book is that it’s not dogmatic. With a plan that involves cutting out grains and sugars, and cutting way back on starches like potatoes, rice, and pasta, one might imagine getting easily frustrated with such a severe restriction and soon abandoning the diet. One of the first “rules” explained in the book is what Sisson calls the “80/20” rule — essentially, always shoot for full compliance, but don’t be discouraged when you only reach 80% “success”. The occasional cheat meal isn’t going to completely undo the good things the rest of your diet has done. In fact, occasional cheat meals or days have the secondary benefit of reminding you how bad you feel when you load up on carbs and sugar.
The shift in diet has been easier than I expected, too — it just takes a little creativity (my wife and I enjoyed spaghetti with spaghetti squash instead of pasta, for example, and it was delicious). There are a lot of great resources in print (there’s two Primal cookbooks available) and online (The Primal Blueprint, Mark’s Daily Apple).
One of the principles of healthy exercise in The Primal Blueprint is varying the intensity of your exercise a lot — too many fitness plans involve repetitious strenuous cardio that can result in chronic inflammation and depress the immune system. Instead, one should do a lot more light exercise (walking, low-intensity bicycling, etc.), and the mix it up with occasional high-intensity stuff like sprinting, lifting, etc.
I mentioned some time ago that I was interested in barefoot (or quasi-barefoot) running. I managed to work up to a reasonable cardio level and successfully finished my first 5K in 29:40 wearing my Vibram FiveFingers (yes, the terrible “toe shoes”). That’s me on the left, post-race. My wife is standing next to me — she finished her first 5k too.
I’ve decided to avoid the temptation to constantly push myself to longer distances and faster paces, and instead do more frequent walks or light jogs (that don’t require the longer recovery time of a faster run), and then every few days do some intervals (sprints, burpees, frog squat jumps) or weight-lifting. I don’t have a big weight set or workout machine so I do mostly body-weight exercises like pushups, pullups, dips, and things like that.
Another rule in The Primal Blueprint is summed up in one word: Play. In college it was easy — someone always had a frisbee or a basketball ready. Now, I have seek out this stuff. On Saturday afternoons, rain, snow, or shine, you’ll find me playing Angleball in Laurel Park in Belhaven. And softball season will be here soon too, which will add at least one or two more games each week.
I’m going to cap off this post by listing the 10 rules of The Primal Blueprint. If they seem ambiguous or overly general, it’s for good reason — there’s no “tricks” to good health. Each rule is explained in great detail in the book, so there’s plenty to learn, but it’s not overly complicated. And it passes what I call the “Bill James” test — a rule that Bill James invented for judging the usefulness of baseball statistics. He stated that a good statistic confirms most of what we know, but still holds a few surprises. If it holds no surprises, then it’s merely parroting convention and is of no use. If it overturns everything we percieve to be true, then it’s probably not a very trustworthy guide and can be disregarded. But a mix of confirmation and surprise — that’s something we can work with.
And that’s how I feel about The Primal Blueprint. It upholds a lot of the time-tested diet and health wisdom, but it adds something that we’ve been missing, something that surprises us when we learn it. I think it can help you if you want to lose weight, or drop a waist size, but I’d encourage you to shoot higher than that — try it out to see if you feel healthier than before. Here’s the 10 rules — if they sound interesting, come check out the book.
1. Eat Lots of Plants and Animals
2. Avoid Poisonous Things
3. Move Frequently at a Slow Pace
4. Lift Heavy Things
5. Sprint Once in a While
6. Get Adequate Sleep
7. Play.
8. Get Adequate Sunlight.
9. Avoid Stupid Mistakes.
10. Use Your Brain.
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