paleo nutrition

Well it is far more than just a diet, though a paleo diet is an important part of the paleo lifestyle.  In essence, Paleo is a lifestyle choice and its founded upon 3 pillars.  Those 3 fundamental pillars are movement, sleep and food and each of these is expanded below. But in essence, a paleo mindset acknowledges that the human race is 3 million years old and that our DNA has not really changed that much for the past 200,000 years. Our genetic makeup is expecting us to eat, rest and move in one way, but modern society is very different to that programming. Recognising that mainly modern ailments perhaps stem from this disconnect between our genetic programming and modern life, a paleo outlook is about adjusting our lifestyles to better fit with our DNA and feel a lot better as a result!

Movement

The human being, or human animal, is genetically programmed to move about a lot whilst barefoot. Our ancestral heritage is that of being a barefoot hunter-gatherer and our DNA has constructed us, and expects us to live, that way. That means a lifetime of hunting for food when we are hungry, drinking water when we are thirsty and moving around a great deal. It also expects us to sleep lying down, to play and to rest. But movement, not sitting, is key. Ancestral humans didn’t go to the gym, sit in chairs or ride bikes, and formal “exercise” was utterly unnecessary.

Many of us fear “exercise” and feel difficulty in motivating ourselves to go to the gym or join a class. But this exercise is disconnected from purpose and it’s unlikely therefore that we will pursue something long term. Unless it’s fun or everyday that is.

So as paleo orientated trainers, New Habit will constantly be looking for ways to insert more movement into your daily life rather than just doing formal, time-consuming exercise. It’s a functional, natural movement approach rather than a formal gym or sports approach. Systems like Crossfit and MovNat definitely have a role here as does play and “caveman” type training approaches. At New Habit we are constantly evaluating better approaches and aim to bring the best of these systems and approaches to your daily life.

Sleep

The role of sleep is critical to our health. We are circadian beings and should sleep very differently to how we often do. We tend to be overstimulated, awake too long, dazzled by over-bright lighting, and interrupted constantly by technology and noise. A paleo lifestyle is a holistic approach and looks at the whole of our being and behaviours.

Eliminating stress is a vital part of hormonal management and therefore of weight control. We look carefully at your sleep and can make suggestions as to how to improve your sleep, when to sleep, how much to sleep and the implications of sleep deprivation. The latter is a cumulative and irreversible condition so the sooner we can help you tackle it and manage better quality sleep into your life, the better.

Food

The words “diet” and “nutrition” do not serve us well. A paleo approach is a lifestyle commitment for life – you cannot “go paleo” for a while and then revert to old habits. But while adopting a paleo diet is a lifestyle decision, the gains are significant.

Our ancestral heritage as hunter-gatherers determines the optimum foods for us and these are meat, fish, eggs, vegetables (excluding a few), tree nuts and sees and a little fruit and honey. Despite much of what we are told by well meaning governments, a diet based on grains is the exact opposite of what most of us should be eating. I am a strong advocate of adopting the paleo approach to food, eating bio-dynamic, organic and grass-fed wherever possible. Whilst there are those that will cry out that this is impossibly expensive, I would challenge that as I know that a typical shopping week (including eating out) means buying a load of low-quality food that a paleo approach will simply eliminate. In addition, paleo is much, much better at managing hunger and you will tend to eat less. My honest appraisal is that a paleo approach to eating can absolutely be cost neutral or even save you money, even whilst buying organic. In addition, it will give you many health benefits the cost-benefit of which is hard to measure: but I for one would prefer to live a longer and healthier life and that, to most of us, is immeasurable in cost terms. For more information see the Paleo top 20.