DIET

The Paleo/Primal/Ancestral/Nutrivore Diet  is about making more nutritious food choices by eating like our hunter gatherer ancestors. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that you have to go out foraging in the woods for your dinner! It simply means you should avoid eating foods that are processed and high in empty calories. Instead, stick to the healthy, nutrient dense foods that have been around for a very long time. A diet high in vegetables with animal meats/seafood, fruits and some nuts.

SLEEP

THE most important thing in life other than oxygen and water is sleep. We can go for a month with no food - and we can live a long time on a poor diet. We can even go a lifetime without exercise. But we can only survive without sleep for seven days!  Proper sleep (I recommend 7 and a half to 8 hrs) is necessary for optimal health. If you have a perfect diet and workout routine, but only sleep for a few hours each night, you will not be healthy. Sleep Hygiene is the term used to describe the methods you can use to help get the sleep you deserve.

MOVEMENT

The human body is designed to get up in the morning and look for food. This means that we are designed to move for a good portion of each day. Gathering activities do not require running all day. Hunting requires mostly stalking, with some sprinting and carrying of the carcass. Our genes have optimized us for this behavior. Our grandparents' only exercise was daily living. Obesity affected one in ten back then. We spend way more time in the gym today, yet two out of three are overweight. What is going on?

CHRONIC STRESS

I would define chronic stress as an environmental or psychological pressure that places an upward demand on the body’s regulatory systems.   Over time, the body produces too much cortisol (the major stress hormone), and the body becomes insulin and leptin resistant.  This causes carbohydrate cravings, obesity, hypertension, high triglycerides, low HDL, atherosclerosis, diabetes, sleep apnea, clenching, grinding, digestive disorders, osteoporosis, coronary artery plaque formation, heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.