"Jamie, you've been following the Primal Blueprint since 2008... why are you starting this now?"
Hi everyone, I'm Jamie Fellrath.
As the above not-so-hypothetical question indicates, I've been following Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint plan since approximately 2008, with good success. I went from being an underweight skinny competitive swimmer in high school (on a high-carb/low-to-moderate fat diet most of the time) to an overweight weekend warrior type athlete for many college and post-college years and was hovering around the 210 pound range for most of that time (all the way up to 240 at my worst, still on a similar diet).
I'm now down to the 180-185 range (I'm 6'0") and feeling great about my body and most of my physical health. I still have some stubborn belly fat that I'd like to shuck, but that's about it. I'm active, I'm in good health, and I pretty much know the foods that give me issues. And I know that when I eat the foods that give me issues, that side effects are coming soon. That includes effects like depression, gastric issues, brain fog, susceptibility to colds and such, arthritis, and more. Plenty of impetus to stay on the straight and narrow with regard to this stuff.
So why start a blog now?
Well...to say it plainly, it's not enough. And this is for a couple of reasons.
One of the things I learned very quickly when I started my first real blog back in 2007, Carless Columbus (formerly Bike Commuting in Columbus), was that when you take on a project like that you become something of an expert. And I don't mean that simply from the standpoint that just writing about stuff makes you an expert, though it does to a great extent. But if you properly publicize your blog, and get a real audience (and I'm happy to say that I had a pretty good one for CC), people start to ask you questions and force you to dig deeper for answers to those questions.
And that is AWESOME.
If I hadn't gone through that exercise, I wouldn't have become a League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructor a few years ago (I'm not certified right now because my LAB membership lapsed, so don't be shocked if you don't see me listed on their instructors' page). I learned a whole lot about cycling during that time, and became something of a recognized local expert on the topic (to the extent that I still get calls from the Columbus Dispatch and other local news outlets for quotes and interviews from time to time).
I only started that blog because I was a new bike commuter back in 2007 (dear Lord, has it been that long?) and I saw that there were bike commuting blogs for other cities, but not Columbus. I wanted to discuss what I'd learned with people, share what I'd gleaned about the topic, and do what I could to help other new cyclists.
I want the same thing for this blog. There are TONS of Paleo resources out there, no doubt about that. But this one will be my implement for learning more about Paleo - the exercise, the nutrition, and the other factors that made our ancestors the successful species they were and where our current lifestyles fail in helping us live up to the same potential. I already know quite a bit about, it obviously, but journaling of any kind helps with comprehension. And public journaling, like a blog, opens me up to the scrutiny of the public who might be reading this, and forces me to refine and back up what I've learned.
The other reason is that I've been reading Mark Sisson's newest book, The Primal Connection, and that's driving me to make some more improvements in how I live my life. And no, it doesn't mean that I'm going to be giving up my house, living in a cave, rooting around for grubs for breakfast while I hope to bring down a deer later to feed my family, wearing loincloths, etc. Ha ha ha. The Primal Connection is primarily about bringing our daily activities and mindset more in line with the way our pre-agricultural ancestors were - with less stress, less attachment to things, more attachment to doing instead of having, things like that.
As I've read this book, it's been amazing to me just how much the stuff that I've learned from personal development experts like J.B. Glossinger at MorningCoach.com, Randy Gage, and others has jibed with what Sisson has talked about in The Primal Connection. Simple things like becoming more present, taking time in nature, becoming less focused on the outcome of a task and more on the journey, and things like that are present in both the modern and the ancestral take on lifestyle improvement. J.B. calls this "left-brain buy-in" - where the logic centers of the brain look at a topic that can be seen as more esoteric or "feel-good" and have a concrete reason that it actually does work. It's pretty amazing.
So I'll be posting about a lot of stuff here: personal development topics, diet (heck, maybe even some recipes), moving toward more minimalist living, MovNat and exercise, relationships, some touchy-feely stuff like emotional and mental control of myself, and more.
I think it's going to be a fun trek into both the past and the future. I hope you'll stick with me as I move forward with this new path.
Hi everyone, I'm Jamie Fellrath. As the above not-so-hypothetical question indicates, I've been following Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint plan since approximately 2008, with good success. I went from being an underweight skinny competitive swimmer in high school (on a high-carb/low-to-moderate fat diet most of the time) to an overweight weekend warrior type athlete for many college and post-college years and was hovering around the 210 pound range for most of that time (all the way up to 240 at my worst, still on a similar diet).
I'm now down to the 180-185 range (I'm 6'0") and feeling great about my body and most of my physical health. I still have some stubborn belly fat that I'd like to shuck, but that's about it. I'm active, I'm in good health, and I pretty much know the foods that give me issues. And I know that when I eat the foods that give me issues, that side effects are coming soon. That includes effects like depression, gastric issues, brain fog, susceptibility to colds and such, arthritis, and more. Plenty of impetus to stay on the straight and narrow with regard to this stuff.
So why start a blog now?
Well...to say it plainly, it's not enough. And this is for a couple of reasons.
One of the things I learned very quickly when I started my first real blog back in 2007, Carless Columbus (formerly Bike Commuting in Columbus), was that when you take on a project like that you become something of an expert. And I don't mean that simply from the standpoint that just writing about stuff makes you an expert, though it does to a great extent. But if you properly publicize your blog, and get a real audience (and I'm happy to say that I had a pretty good one for CC), people start to ask you questions and force you to dig deeper for answers to those questions.
And that is AWESOME.
If I hadn't gone through that exercise, I wouldn't have become a League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructor a few years ago (I'm not certified right now because my LAB membership lapsed, so don't be shocked if you don't see me listed on their instructors' page). I learned a whole lot about cycling during that time, and became something of a recognized local expert on the topic (to the extent that I still get calls from the Columbus Dispatch and other local news outlets for quotes and interviews from time to time).
I only started that blog because I was a new bike commuter back in 2007 (dear Lord, has it been that long?) and I saw that there were bike commuting blogs for other cities, but not Columbus. I wanted to discuss what I'd learned with people, share what I'd gleaned about the topic, and do what I could to help other new cyclists.
I want the same thing for this blog. There are TONS of Paleo resources out there, no doubt about that. But this one will be my implement for learning more about Paleo - the exercise, the nutrition, and the other factors that made our ancestors the successful species they were and where our current lifestyles fail in helping us live up to the same potential. I already know quite a bit about, it obviously, but journaling of any kind helps with comprehension. And public journaling, like a blog, opens me up to the scrutiny of the public who might be reading this, and forces me to refine and back up what I've learned.
The other reason is that I've been reading Mark Sisson's newest book, The Primal Connection, and that's driving me to make some more improvements in how I live my life. And no, it doesn't mean that I'm going to be giving up my house, living in a cave, rooting around for grubs for breakfast while I hope to bring down a deer later to feed my family, wearing loincloths, etc. Ha ha ha. The Primal Connection is primarily about bringing our daily activities and mindset more in line with the way our pre-agricultural ancestors were - with less stress, less attachment to things, more attachment to doing instead of having, things like that.
As I've read this book, it's been amazing to me just how much the stuff that I've learned from personal development experts like J.B. Glossinger at MorningCoach.com, Randy Gage, and others has jibed with what Sisson has talked about in The Primal Connection. Simple things like becoming more present, taking time in nature, becoming less focused on the outcome of a task and more on the journey, and things like that are present in both the modern and the ancestral take on lifestyle improvement. J.B. calls this "left-brain buy-in" - where the logic centers of the brain look at a topic that can be seen as more esoteric or "feel-good" and have a concrete reason that it actually does work. It's pretty amazing.
So I'll be posting about a lot of stuff here: personal development topics, diet (heck, maybe even some recipes), moving toward more minimalist living, MovNat and exercise, relationships, some touchy-feely stuff like emotional and mental control of myself, and more.
I think it's going to be a fun trek into both the past and the future. I hope you'll stick with me as I move forward with this new path.
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