I’m aiming to be this fit when I’m 59!
About a month ago, I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Mark Sisson, one of the most recognized names in the Paleo/Primal industry.
(The interviews can be read in their entirety in the October issue of Paleo Lifestyle Magazine available for your iPad or through an Amazon Kindle reader or app for your computer/tablet/smartphone)
Whether it’s through his books – The Primal Blueprint, The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation, and the soon to be released The Primal Connection – or through his extremely popular website – Mark’s Daily Apple – at one point or another, we’ve turned to Mark for Paleo/Primal guidance.
I like to think of him as our Paleo/Primal Yoda, except without being squat and the Miss Piggy voice.
Obviously, Mark’s a smart guy and knows his stuff, so I definitely picked up a lot during our interview. I’ve posted some excerpts from the interview to give you an idea of some of the stuff we talked about:
Brian: What is your elevator speech for what it means to “live Primal?”
Mark: We have ancient hunter-gatherer genes set up to expect certain environmental inputs – whole foods, fresh air, lots of movement, a bit of sun, low chronic stress, good sleep, good community. When you provide those inputs, your genes give you great health.
Brian: Do you feel like you would be able to achieve a relatively good level of health through diet alone? How much of a role has exercise and activity played in your Primal lifestyle?
Mark: Oh, yeah. Diet is 80% of the equation. That said, if you ate the most perfect Primal food but sat on your butt playing Starcraft all day, your health would going to suffer. You’d be better off than the gamer drinking Mountain Dew and Chinese take-out, but you wouldn’t be as healthy as you could be.
I log a fraction of the miles I used to. Hell, I don’t even “log” much of anything. My dedicated training sessions last thirty minutes, max, when they used to run for hours. Despite the reduction in volume and intensity, though, physical activity is a big part of my lifestyle.
Only now, movement is integrated into my day – walking, hiking, biking – and when I “train,” I’m training to enhance my play – stand up paddle boarding, Ultimate frisbee, snowboarding. I no longer dread “exercise” because exercising isn’t the end goal anymore.
Brian: What projects are you currently working on? Anything coming up in the future?
Mark: I’m hard at work on my new book, “The Primal Connection,” coming out early next year. That’ll be a fun one that tackles everything beyond diet and exercise. And in the (hopefully) near future, we’ll be releasing a Primal certification program for health and fitness professionals.
Alright, back to me – like I said, it was an absolute honor to interview Mark, and I’m hopeful I’ll get the chance to do so again once The Primal Connection is ready to be released (not that he’ll need my help to move copies).
If you want to read the interview in its entirety, please either grab a copy of the October issue of Paleo Lifestyle Magazine available for your iPad or an abbreviated version of the magazine for your Amazon Kindle reader or app for your computer/tablet/smartphone!
Disclosure: The opinions expressed above are 100% my own. This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
