Make Primal Work for You

Katie made a very good comment in my motivation post that got my rant going.

I have tried to make this point in several posts and comment discussions but maybe it is time I came out and specifically posted my thoughts on this.

I am of the school of thought that you need to adapt primal living to work for you. There is no one right way to go about things. X of Ys and A of Bs is not the answer. This applies to both exercise and diet.

I am pretty confident that if you compare any two primal, “guru’s”, success stories, bloggers or whatever that you will find that we in fact do not eat exactly the same thing nor do we exercise exactly the same. We all follow the same basic principles and ideas but we have adapted it in a way that works for us. Even my wife and I eat slightly differently. She tends to eat a lot more (and different) fruit and nuts than I do… but that works for her!

I think that too many people try to adapt themselves to a diet and that is where the struggle and the heartache and the failure and the diet stigma come from. Diets (mind you I am talking about specific diet plans and not the real meaning of the word) tell you to eat this much of this and this much of this at this time and then do this exercise at this time for this length of time. That rigid mold just does not fit everyone. This should be a 2 way street people. You adapt to the lifestyle and it adapts to you.

Primal living needs to be viewed more as a foundation or a plan. Everyone needs to start somewhere so go ahead and start with what people say or tell you to do but from there make it your own. If something doesn’t seem to be working for you… stop it or switch it up. If you feel you need or want to eat or do more of something, try it out! One important caveat, stick to the primal principles… don’t experiment with eating 10 tubs of cookie dough.

Continue these little experiments until you get to where it works for you. And this will continue to shift over time! I eat and train differently than I did a couple months ago and differently again than when I started primal. Our schedules, goals, heck… our lives change.

All that being said, don’t be afraid to take other peoples advice. I will get emails from people that are having a hard time reaching their goals and I may advise them to maybe cut back on the nuts or fruit or to eat fattier meat instead of lean or any other bajillion pieces of advice. I offer this as advice, not as the end all answer. Someone that has been in your shoes may be in a position to offer you valuable advice but telling you that you are wrong and they are right is… well its wrong. Lol.

Let your primal lifestyle evolve with you. Stick to the basic principles but take it your way from there.