Month: May 2023

Unleash Your Inner Greatness With Jake Mahal

We are really pleased to introduce some Primal living guidance from Certified Health and Wellness Coach Jake Mahal.

Jake is a Primal Health Master Coach, MovNat Instructor, Breathwork Coach, Barefoot Coach and Permaculture Design Consultant. He has been a long standing supporter of Primal Meats and is a member of our Primal Web community.

By Jake Mahal

Nutrition is the prime mover when it comes to our health – it’s the external environment that we’re literally merging into our internal environment. That said, there are some other big pieces we need to factor in if we’re looking toward optimal human gene expression and therefore optimal human health.

If you’re already buying regenerative meat but not too sure on the wider nutritional principles of ancestral health, let me give you a quick recap:

• Eat plants and animals – the more diverse the better – and get these both from wild/regenerative sources.
• Avoid grains, refined seed and vegetable oils and refined sugars.
• Don’t eat well presented poison… the type that has many ingredients and is packaged in brightly coloured plastic (junk food).

Ok, what other behaviours do we need to stack in with our food?

Move

Let’s kick things off by talking about movement. Primal living is all about getting in touch with our primal selves, and that means embracing our natural inclination to move. So, lace up your minimalist shoes (if you’re well adapted to a barefoot lifestyle – if not, you need to ease into this), and prepare to get closer to the ground. Here we’re talking about lots of low level movement at regular intervals along with the occasional all out effort of lifting something heavy, or moving our body very quickly.

When it comes to moving like our ancestors, guess what they didn’t do?….. Long cardio sessions. These modern exercise modalities are not what our genes are expecting and leave us overly-inflamed, injury prone and teetering on burnout.

Trying out new movement patterns or intensities might feel difficult to begin with, but research shows that the more we move, the more we want to move. So, engage in activities that make your inner child jump for joy. Think hiking, sprinting, climbing, or even joining something like a yoga class. Ditch the boring treadmill and venture outdoors to explore the untamed beauty of nature. Let your body move freely, and you’ll unlock a level of vitality that’s off the charts!

Not sure where to start with this?

I highly recommend checking out MovNat (natural movement fitness) – I’m happy to talk to anyone who wants more info – get in touch.

Sleep

Sleep Like a Sloth (in a Good Way). Ah, the primal art of snoozing! Quality sleep is essential for restoring our primal bodies and minds.

Create a sleep sanctuary that would make our ancestors proud. Banish electronic devices from your bedroom, make sure your den is cool and dark and get into bed on time each and every day. Embrace your inner sloth and give yourself the sleep you deserve (minimum 7 hours per night and ideally 8 or more unless you’re taking an afternoon siesta). Then rise and shine, on time and expose your eyes (and therefore brain) to natural daylight as soon as possible. You’ll find yourself revitalised and ready to tackle the day!

More sleep tips here.

Play

Unleash your inner child. Remember the days when play was an essential part of life? It’s time to reconnect with your inner child and infuse your primal lifestyle with an ample dose of fun and adventure. Break free from the mundane and explore new frontiers!

Play is actually our primary way of learning and yet play seems to get side-lined as soon as we start primary school… and I probably don’t need to mention our working adult lives.

Engage in activities that challenge your mind and body at the same time – just like a hunting and gathering session would have done. Join a local sports team, take up martial arts, or try your hand at a coordination task like juggling. The world is your playground, so let your primal spirit roam free!

By no means am I side-lining the more sedentary methods of play. A family board game is a great downtime activity that I’m sure honours the spirit of our ancestors story-telling merged with problem solving and deep relational ties.

Relax

Slow Life Down. Our modern lives are far too hectic and have us operating, in a moderate way, in our flight/fight/freeze (sympathetic) nervous system far too often. Our ancestors would have been resting and digesting (using the parasympathetic nervous system) predominantly with the occasional huge spike from the sympathetic nervous system when a bear decided to give chase.

To honour our primal nervous systems – we need to slow down. Reconnect with nature regularly, whether it’s through a leisurely hike, or simply finding a quiet spot to sit and contemplate.

Practice deep breathing, meditation, or indulge in a relaxing bathing or massage ritual. Surround yourself with positive, supportive people who nourish your primal soul.

On the flip side of this (health permitting)- occasionally give your nervous system an intense and short sharp stressor (otherwise known as a hormetic stressor) to mimic the bear, the lion or the sabre-tooth-tiger. These intense stressors actually help keep our nervous system well toned and allow us to better adapt to the regular stressors of life, build tolerance and actually spend more time in our rest and digest system. Sprints or very brief, high intensity workouts, cold plunges, saunas or some breathwork practices can all be good examples of healthy stress to include in your life… and there’s no risk of being eaten alive… win!

Relate

Embrace Community and Connection: Humans are social creatures, and our primal ancestors knew the importance of community. In the modern world, it’s easy to get caught up in our own little caves (or phones… doom-scrolling anyone?), but a primal lifestyle reminds us to reconnect and forge meaningful connections.

Find your tribe, whether it’s through joining local rambling groups, participating in woodwork workshops, or regularly interacting on Primal Web. Share your experiences, swap primal recipes, and inspire each other to live life to the fullest.

Bathe

Catch some rays. We’ve been conditioned over the past decades to be fearful of the sun and to cover up at every opportunity. We didn’t evolve slathered in factor 50 or wearing sun hats. We need the sun on our skin. This is vital for our Vitamin D production (actually a pro-hormone) which has cascading effects on our body from DNA function through to mood states and regulating our sleep cycles. Head outside first thing after waking and do some literal sun salutations – preferably naked – or as naked as appropriate for your surroundings! Then repeat the process at midday and before sunset – try to catch all the spectra of visible and invisible light on offer.

IMPORTANT… never burn. It’s just common sense. Skin, radiated until it is red and painful is not a good idea. A good approach to sun exposure is to spend half as much time in the sun as it would take your skin to burn and no more. If you’d burn after 50 minutes – get 25 minutes and then head for the shade for the rest of your natural movement inspired stretching session.

Final thoughts

So, there’s a quick prescription of primal lifestyle to complement your already tip-top eating. Remember, it’s all about moving, sleeping, playing, stressing less, sunning more and connecting with others. If you’d love to put this all together in a tried and tested way to find #alldayenergy, ideal body weight and long-term success, get in touch with Jake HERE.

Jake loves empowering busy parents to cultivate a lifestyle leading to #alldayenergy, ideal body weight and lifelong success. You can interact with Jake and other health, wellbeing, food and farming experts in our social media platform Primal Web click below to join.

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