"You look ten years younger!"

I want to share with you a bit of inner and outer reflection.  If you have 'gone primal' you'll know that it's really different to anything you've ever tried before.  You look good, like you would if you had been on a gruesome diet and shed some kilos, but you look different to that, almost - cleaner?  You feel cleaner, clearer, more connected, you are sleeping well at night and it shows on your skin.  You are glowing and have more presence.  Things flow easier for you now, life has purpose, you see the beauty in everyday things. 

Of course there are challenges as normal, this is real life after all and you have your moments, whether they be fear of a pending hospital appointment or loosing your cool with the kids on a hot afternoon and yelling in their faces (both me in the past few weeks!). But over all you are more positive than negative now.  You feel good on the inside and that too shows on the outside.

Suddenly people you know do things like caress your cheek in the local shop and say "this paleo life is working well for you!" (this was today's encounter). Or the one I liked the best was "wow H you look ten years younger".  I shared the comment with my pal Caz and she said by way of reality-check-feet-on-the-ground as all good pals do "would be good to look 29 H". And that got me wondering what DID I look like at 29?  This year I am turning 40 so y'know it's a reflective time. 

I know I've never felt as good this, so much more constant, less ups and downs, less overwhelm and burnouts.  Please know I am not sharing these compliments as a way of demonstrating some major ego issues and blowing smoke up my own ass!  On the contrary I am sharing them with you out of pure wonder of how eating different foods and making some small lifestyle changes can have such an impact on how you feel and look.  I want to inspire you, I want everyone to own this right to feel this good. 

Rest assured my feet are on the ground, my head isn't enlarged at all.  I just feel like I am the optimal me.  I feel like I aim gaining optimal health which means I am going to live the best life possible.  I am eating what I feel like and eating when I feel like it and really enjoying all my food more than ever before. There is no dieting and all of the restriction and self judgement and usual let down that comes with that.  I am trusting my body to find it's healthy weight and I am listening to the cues of hunger, thirst and saiety. (Oh and I am working on not drinking that one more glass of wine too...).

Ok so I digress, but what I mean is I feel good and so it doesn't even really matter what my outward appearance is, but overall I think I am looking better than I did before I went primal. I am definitely more comfortable in my 39 year old skin than I was at 29 and that feels like a pretty cool way to grace the big birthday later this year.


So here are those pictures.... Here is me at 29                                         ...and 39

I guess it's also cool for you to put a face to the blogger too right?

What about you?  Are you feeling better than you did before you made your Primal Shift? Let me know in the comments below or email me at primalsoapbox@gmail.com

How cutting out wheat cured my plantar fasciitis

Plantar what? Plantar fasciitis (pronounced PLAN ter fash ee EYE tus) is one of the most common causes of heel pain. The plantar fascia is a flat band of tissue that connects your heel to the bones of your toe and it supports the arch in your foot.  Plantar fasciitis is, in theory, caused by straining the ligament that supports your arch, this leads to pain and swelling.  They say its caused by too much time on your feet (hmm), common in middle aged people (why?), if you're overweight, or if you have tight muscles in your legs.  If you've got it, you know about it.  Even undiagnosed people are aware if they have sore feet or not.  As a massage therapist I do a lot of reflexology work on the feet and when I squeeze the heel on my clients I find that 99% of people have sore heels.  That's a lot right.  Are your feet sore?

I developed agonising plantar fasciitis when I was pregnant with my two children.  At the time I was told it was because I was heavy from carrying child and that the relaxin in my pregnant body had made my arches relax too much.  I was on my feet a lot running after a then two year old whilst heavily pregnant with my second child, this I was told only exacabated the problem.  To add insult to injury we moved into a 'shouse' with a concrete floor!  I was in so much pain that I could not step more than two steps without shoes on.  The ONLY shoes I could wear comfortably were Birkenstocks. 

My cousin in the UK also suffers from this painful affliction, it causes him so much pain that he had a cortisol injection for it.  My Auntie also suffers from it so I assumed oh well its a family thing, just better live with it.  It was so sore that it would make my shoulders and neck tight just from the wincing I did as I walked around.  I had some orthotics made up which helped but didn't cure.

Ditching the gluten was the first step on my primal diet journey and it was only a matter of weeks, maybe two or three, before I noticed, 'hey, my feet aren't sore'.  I have always loved walking on the beach but until then it was a pretty uncomfortable exercise.  Now I was taking beach walks as therapy and no pain!

How is this so, well I have a couple of theories.  The first is that I have gluten sensitivity.  You don't need to have full blown celiac disease to have adverse reactions to gluten.  Gluten sensitivity, or gluten intolerance basically means having an adverse reaction to consuming gluten which can cause the body to attack it's own tissues.  Other signs of gluten sensitivity include bloating, stomach pain, fatigue, diarrhea and constipation as well as pain in the bones and joints.  Gluten sensitivity is much more common than you would think.  The easiest and cheapest way to see if you have it is to eliminate gluten for 30 days and see if you have relief in any of your nagging health problems.

Theory two gluten causes a leaky gut.  Studies show that gluten can cause inflammation in the intestine and a degeneration in the gut linining allowing unwanted substances to leak through into the blood stream and wreak havoc wherever the invading substances go. Which again comes down to inflamation.

So if you've got similar foot pain and are sick of putting up with it how about trying a gluten elimination plan for 30 days and see if you have any improvement? A reduction in pain may be the first of an avalanche of improvements you experience if you ask me! Did I mention the nigling shoulder pain also miraculously vanished too? 

What are your thoughts? I seem to be having some issues with the comments function below but you can contact me by email primalsoapbox@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook and Instagram.

In short: eat more fat and exercise less.....say what?

So what do I mean by primal, or paleo or (cringe) the caveman diet?  I now don't think its some passing diet craze I truly believe it's a lifestyle that suits our evolution.  Eating primal is eating the same things that our ancestors who survived before us did for thousands of years. 

Only recently have we messed it up by altering grains to give greater yields, making food in labs and paying scientists to make frankenfoods that are cheap to produce and last on the shelves for ages.  Next time you walk down the cereal aisle ask yourself 'do I really believe this is healthy for me?' 

Our ancestors ate a diet rich in good fats with some protein, minimal carbohydrates and practically zero sugar, unless it was autumn and there was some seasonal fruit which was good to fatten up for the winter.   Or maybe our ancestors came by a guarded beehive and found a little bit of honey, maybe a tablespoon each. Now we eat the equivalent to at least a tablespoon worth of honey e v e r y   d a y.  It's like we are preparing for a winter that never comes, food is in abundance.  A Standard Australian Diet (SAD, love that acronym as it does make you indeed SAD) is low in fat and high in sugars and carbohydrates.  We exercise now more than we ever have done (did your Grandma go to the gym or run 10kms a day?  Mine didn't, she got her exercise from cleaning the house, preparing food, going down the shops and raising a family) but we are getting FATTER. 

Cancer, obesity, diabetes, neurological diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's  are rife for us now yet our ancestors didn't suffer these diseases.  Our hospitals and Doctors are amazing at treating acute illnesses and accidents but really struggle with treating chronic diseases.  As humans we typically try to get away with as much as we can, its in our nature, "yeah I've heard gluten probably isn't good for me but I am not a celiac so I can get away with it", no one is going to be more interested in your own health than YOU.  We trust our health to Doctors who prescribe medication to treat the symptoms not the cause. 

I think that if you don't want to die of some god awful degenerative disease then the information is out there to take your health into your own hands and make a difference.  I have read oodles of research as I think it is AMAZING but appreciate that not all of you share the same desire that's why I've left the research and referencing out of this blog to date and am just passing on the key points to you in a laymans way.  It's the N=1 idea.  That means, try the experiment on yourself, give it 30-60 days and see how you feel.  Be sure to let me know.

How does all of that trickle down to your dinner plate?  Well I aim to half fill my plate with veggies, some protein (I go for about 75-100g per meal as in raw meat or fish or eggs not actual protein content of food) and fat, (I go for about a tablespoon of additional fat per meal in the way of coconut oil, butter, cream, avocado, olive oil etc.)   Add carbs if you wish, like if you are really craving some mash, have it, or a delicious root mash go for it, but I am trying to eat above ground veggies more as they are less carby, but I do enjoy root veggies and have some quinoa and rice too.

When I first flicked through a few paleo cookbooks I felt disheartened, it was just lots of fancy ways with meat....and looks very different to what we had previously eaten.  Now however I have taken what I have learnt and adapted our family faves to be more primal and thus more body compatible and nutritious.  Primal cooking has surprised me in that its become a lot more simple - the food speaks for itself.  I used to slave away over fancy sauces (low fat of course) and bloody gravies there was so much prep time (and so many undesirable ingredients).  The other day I had planned on cooking some grass fed pork in a white wine and cream sauce with prunes and a root puree.  I looked at the recipe and felt uninspired, I couldn't be bothered.  So we simply barbequed the pork, had the puree (carrot, parsnip and sweet potato with butter) with some steamed greens from the veggie patch to the side.  The food was amazing.  I have never tasted pork like that before. I would have ruined it with cream etc.  The freshly picked veggies coated in butter were simply stunning too.  Simple and delicious.  Way much more enjoyment.  Oh and also did you know that the vitamins in vegetable are fat soluble?  I pop organic grass fed butter over all of our veggies now, they taste so much better, who knew?  Finally a way of eating that satisfies, delights, there is certainly none of the deprivation that I expected to encounter.

What about the cost? Yes grass fed meat and organic dairy products are more expensive but a little goes a long way, somehow this perfect, as nature intended food is more satisfying, more tasty and makes you feel FRIKKIN AWESOME.  I buy cheaper cuts (which are actually more nutritious as they are usually on the bone so think bone broth benefits) and slow cook them, we have leftovers for lunch, a little goes a long way.  If you buy seasonal veggies they will be cheaper, and if you grow your own and keep a few chooks you are laughing.  I bake most of our cakes, biccies and bread and now I have fine tuned my quirky ingredients such as almond meal and coconut flour its inexpensive to make better versions of yummy treats.  We are drinking less grog, so that's a saving too.  But ultimately what is the cost? I would have gladly spent thousands to stop feeling so nauseous, turns out I didn't have too.  Invest in a primal lifestyle for yourself and your family and you could be saving on your long term health.

A bit more on exercise, as you know, I have been a devoted gym junkie for 25 years, chronic cardio works, calories in versus calories out kinda thinking.  Well that doesn't work for me anymore.  Exercise is a form of stress on the body and raises cortisol, the stress hormone, this was bad news for my adrenals and left me feeling overwhelmed with anxiety and some sort of mild depression I suppose, yeah more like a dark cloud of it all being 'too hard'.  When I was feeling really shit I just couldn't face going to the gym at all but the gym junkie in me said I should probably get some exercise, so I did other things like walked on the beach, did some yoga in my living room and had some bike rides in the countryside.  It felt great!  Little did I know but I was starting to incorporate other factors of a primal lifestyle such as spending time in nature and getting some UV exposure for vitamin D (essential to good digestion and good mood, I think 20 mins of unprotected sun exposure per day is what to aim for but you should check).  Think what our ancestors would have done, they moved around a lot all day long, didn't spend much time at all sitting down and they lifted heavy things, maybe they would have had to do a quick sprint here and there to catch some dinner or save themselves been someone elses dinner!

So some take aways for you my darling soapboxers: EATING FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT.  Move your body lots throughout the day (if you're a Mum like me then you're winning) lift heavy things (like your kids) and workouts can be short bursts of sprints that leave you breathless or tabata style workouts.  If you get to the gym and you're not feeling it, listen to your body and go home.

I've found that living a primal lifestyle is workout enough!  On Sunday I spent three hours power gardening, trying to feed and mulch my fruit trees, grass and veggie patches before some heavy rain came in, then I spent three hours cooking in the kitchen.  That's enough right?  I've started to look at my activity throughout the week on the whole as opposed to how many times I've hit the gym in the past seven days.

 

Here's Mike trying a H induced Tabata style workout down the beach recently.  Exercise, family time and time spent in nature all rolled into one, too easy

So in case you didn't already figure it out, I am ON A KIN MISSION to spread the word about how getting back to ancestral basics can really help everyone experience a better life!  If you are experiencing some vague health problems that the Dr can't help you with then consider giving some of the primal lifestyle ideas a try.  Also, if you know of anyone who could benefit please spread the word about my blog and facebook page, thanks in advance, H xx