Weigh The FAQS

Whenever my fitness routine becomes a little, well, too routine, I query my friends for their preferred method of exercise. I have found that everybody has their own way of keeping in shape, whether it’s kickboxing, jogging, or, just lifting weights for hours on end. Not all of them work for me, but there’s no harm in trying something new. To that end, I decided to accompany my friend to a Bikram yoga class.

For those who don’t know, Bikram yoga is a heavily franchised form of yoga that is practiced in a room heated to about 104 degrees Fahrenheit with 40% humidity. Pioneered, and ferociously copyrighted, by Bikram Choudhury in the 1970’s, the practice consists of 26 unvarying poses or asanas that are repeated twice over a 90-minute session. Though I have taken a yoga class before, I’d never ventured into the specialized Bikram studio and frankly, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to contort themselves into impossible positions while being stuck in conditions better suited to tropical islands than the gym. Yoga is difficult enough as it is without the added detriment of sweat and dehydration.

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Last time, I gave a very basic introduction to my Paleolithic diet. To recap:

-No beans, legumes, grains, starches, or processed sugar (basically, nothing but honey is allowed), and very little salt.
-Eat fresh whole food, raw when possible.
-Civilization has made us sick, by feeding us food to which our bodies have no adaption.
-Eat meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

But before you start going crazy at the grocery store and throwing recipes together, understand that the quality of the food is as important as the classification of the food - especially when it comes to animal products. Not all meat is created equal.

The quality of the meat - any animal product, really - is arguably more important than the other stuff. Buy organic vegetables and fruits if you can afford it, but I think it’s far more crucial that the animal products you eat come from “paleo” animals. If you subscribe to the notion that eating food our bodies are evolutionarily adapted to is imperative for optimum health, doesn’t it follow that the animals we eat should also eat the “correct” food? Fruits and vegetables, organic or not, “eat” the same stuff: sunlight, water, nutrients.

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If you’re making the long journey from out-of-shape couch potato to peak fitness hotshot, then you are very likely well acquainted with that chamber of horrors that is the, erm, gym.

Yes, the gym. Despite the prevalence of the calorie counting and carb obsession, fitness gurus counsel the weight loss community that there really is only one way to guarantee that you reach your ideal weight: a regular exercise routine, reliably executed by dragging your lazy butt to the gym three or four times a week.

Now, just because the gym is the only way to get the results you want doesn’t mean that going to the gym doesn’t suck. Exercise benefits you in so many ways - physically and mentally - so why is the gym such a chore? And, since we’re on the topic, why aren’t you losing any weight despite the fact that you’ve been pacing the treadmill for what seems like ten years?

It’s a question I struggled with myself for a long time. It seemed that no matter how many late nights I spent killing myself on the elliptical, I wasn’t losing as much weight as I should have been, considering how frequent my gym trips were.

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Thanks to all you readers, I get a weekly column! Haha. It seems Jane couldn’t resist giving me my own soapbox… she probably just gets tired of me in person!

Okay, so the title may look strange. How exactly does one live like a hunter gatherer? There’s a lot to it, but it’s actually a pretty simple, straightforward concept. I’ve long felt an affinity with the natural world. Being out in nature, eating food we’ve grown in our own garden, exerting myself physically - these things have always felt right. Whenever I ride my bike to work instead of drive, I seem to have a better day. Don’t get me wrong, cause I love the creature comforts afforded by the modern world - I’m typing this on a laptop, aren’t I? - but I’ve come to realize the importance of getting away from time to time, or at least of using technology in concert with “natural living.” Thus, this post.

First, I’ll discuss diet.

I realize that “hunter gatherer” is a potentially problematic, blanket term. Am I referring to Paleolithic people from Europe, Amazonian hunter gatherers, or Easter Islanders? Vastly different situations, food sources, terrain, animal species. But there is a common thread that seems to link all Paleolithic people: diet.

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