This past weekend from March 28 – 30th I attended the 2nd annual Paleo Fx – Ancestral Movement – Theory to Practice in Austin Texas. It was a total of 2.5 days, with 21 hours surrounded by Paleo people and emerged in the adventures of Paleo-land. 48 possible sessions (not including cooking demos or workout options) of which I was able to attend 19, and met a whole lot of like-minded people. Here is what my days looked like:
Day 1: Nora Gedgaudes; Dr. Cate Shanahan; Dr. Terry Wahls; Dr. Emily Deans & Jacob Egbert; Sarah Fragoso; Dr. Lauren Noel; Robb Wolf!
Day 2: Ancestral Wellness for Women’s Health panel; Hormones Panel; Crossroads Health, Longevity, & Performance; Affecting Future American Healthcare; Training & Nutrition for Women; Think Tank
Day 3: Chris Kresser; Robb Wolf; Heart Rate Variability; Evolution of Ancestral Wellness; Ask the Paleo Experts; Biohacks
I met some really cool people and was able to hang out with a pretty awesome group of Philly Paleo people too – Roger Dickerman - Relentless Roger and Marissa Pellegrino – Relentless Riss, Colin Champ, the Caveman Doctor, Chris Plentus from Constantly Varied, James Gregory from Fast Paleo – PS those in the greater Philadelphia area make sure you join the Ancestral 215 Meet Up Group so get in on some closer to home Paleo-themed hang outs!
The Philly Crew at the farm to table dinner: me, Marissa, Roger, Colin, and Chris
In an attempt to synthesize a massive amount of information into something that will be digestible, and interesting to my readers, I challenged myself to narrow down what I learned to the Top 7, so here it goes.
1. Stress Matters
As much as we want to only focus on things that are easier to control and measure like fitness, exercise, and nutrition when it comes to your overall health, stress matters, a lot. You can’t be healthy if your stress levels are high, you’re not managing your stress well, and those last few pounds that you’ve been struggling to lose forever….could be related to how stressed you are. So what to do? The good news is that adding something as simple as 5 minutes of meditation or quiet reflection a day can help reduce stress, improve your hormone balance, and improve your health. You need to do a little work here to find YOUR minimum effective dose, but the big message here is to chill out, slow down, and add some internal silence to your training routine.
Take-Away: Add 5 minutes of quiet mindfulness to your day – set an alarm on your phone, find a quiet spot, and just be – start “working in” instead of only “working out”
2. Paleo for Athletes = Superpowers
There is a lot of speculation about Paleo and athletics. At Paleo FX I heard from quiet a few high level trainers – Eva T. (Olympic Champion Skier) , Dr Cate Shanahan (who is currently coaching the LA Lakers), Nell Stephenson (Accomplished Iron-distance triathlete), James Fitzgerald (OPT – First ever Crossfit Games champion), and more. They echoed the fact that athletes can be Paleo and THRIVE. Following a Paleo lifestyle allows the athlete to burn fat for fuel, which allows you to run practically forever compared to the amount of carbohydrate you’re able to store in your muscles as glycogen. They have seen increase in performance and recovery, along with some hard data like 30% more efficient fat burning capacity and 30% more efficient heart. This translates to better use of energy and muscles allowing you to train smarter.
Take-Away: Do you feel better after exercise, if not you’re over-trained. Unless you’re getting paid to exercise, you need to take a break!
Nell Stepheson – Paleoista
3. Eat Your Vegetables
Duh…I know what you’re thinking but I dare you to take a look at your current food intake and see if you come close to the 3+ dinner plates full of vegetables that Dr. Terry Wahls eats daily. It was inspiring to hear Dr. Wahls share her story and how she came back from MS. In some respects people need to be reminded to eat their vegetables, and a wide variety of them too – get your leafy greens, your colorful antioxidant filled ones, and ideally add the sulfur containing vegetables as well. Take the challenge to only eat fruit AFTER you’ve consumed your vegetables to the day.
Take-Away: Eat more vegetables, start with seeing where you could add them – are you eating vegetables with every meal? As the base of every meal?
4. Put YOU First
Yes, you read that right; this was a reoccurring message especially in some of the panels that were focusing on women. Remember to “put your oxygen mask on first” before you start trying to help everyone else. Sarah Furgoso told the story about being a role-model for her boys, in order to be the best woman and mom she could she had to take time to put herself first, to get healthy and in balance. Do this in your life too, be a role model, show others how to reach their full potential by putting yourself first, and taking time for you before you start sharing the Paleo message with the rest of the world.
Take-Away: You make your own decisions, to reach your full potential you need to put YOURSELF first because no one else will.
5. It’s a Lifestyle
I heard this phrase repeated quite a few times and at a series of talks through the conference. Paleo isn’t something that you try for 30 days, well maybe that’s how you start but it’s not where you end. Its not a fad diet, its not something that you do on and off, it’s a way of living that encompasses how you eat, the type of training you do, the way you approach life, and a new way to see what you value. While you don’t have to replicate the life of a Caveman or Cavewoman to live a Paleo lifestyle to the fullest potential, take into consideration that what you are doing is starting to care more about your food, where it comes from, things like sustainability and the impact to the environment. You start to think about the world and what you do in terms of making you healthier or unhealthier, and it’s a commitment that you are making to yourself, hopefully for life. Get outside of the diet box and embrace the movement as a new perspective on life which allows you to thrive instead of survive.
Take-Away: Paleo is not a fad diet, its something that you do and becomes a part of who you are.
6. Focus on Sleep
I feel like this is something that most people inherently know, that when you need that Venti Starbucks to function in the morning that something must be off. Sleep has a huge impact on your health, stress levels, athletic performance, ability to focus and concentrate, learn, amount of body fat, way you handle stress….are you getting the pictures. Once you start tackling your food and your exercise c choices the next step is to start working on your sleep. Get more of it, 7 – 9 hours is ideal. You should wake up feeling rested and ready to take on the day instead of dragging yourself out of bed. Develop a routine and for those that are more experienced here start watching your circadian rhythms and do things like shut down your exposure to blue light (e.g., through TV and electronics), wear some cool blue light blocking glasses, sleep in a pitch-black dark room, and make sleep a priority.
Take-Away: Try to stick to a routine, going to bed at the same time each night and waking at the same time each morning, when you’re no longer sleep deprived and sticking to a schedule you should start waking up naturally, without an alarm!
Biohacking panel – Sleep was mentioned here
7. Get a Healthy Gut
I feel like this concept has fallen off the radar recently. When I first learned about Paleo one of the core concepts was “leaky gut” but now that seems like something that everyone in Paleo-land takes for granted. I was reminded through an in-depth presentation on the gut-brain-skin connection from Chris Kresser just how much power our “second brain” our gut has on our health. Even those that are following a Paleo diet may need to work on fully restoring their gut health and maintaining it. Things that we think of as disease or illness like psoriasis, chronic fatigue, eczema, acne and fibromyalgia may really be symptoms of poor gut health, rather than treat the symptoms, attack the source and get a healthy gut. One thing you can do to help heal your gut is to follow a Paleo diet, but you may need to go one step further – following an autoimmune protocol, trying a low fodmap or low histamine diet. In addition, supplement with real food probiotic sources to help aid and rebuild your gut with healthy bacteria!
Take-Away: Your gut health affects your overall health, if you’ve got something going on and aren’t 100% healthy, instead of tackling the symptoms also address your gut.
We rounded out the conference with a cool experience at a charity farm-to-table dinner at a local farm in Austin. The company was great and the venue was really special, felt like a large backyard party with fun lights. My photos of the food didn’t turn out so great, but check out Chris’s here.
Here’s the menu – the antelope was great, so was the chard and the sea salt truffle for dessert!
Cheers via mason jars
Grilled Oysters with Cucumber Grapefruit & Herbs
Smoked Wild Boar Rillettes
Texas Redfish Cioppino (Glen’s smoke dried peppers, fennel, gulf shrimp, Redfish, first of the season heirloom tomatoes)
Shaved Radish, Rainbow Carrots & Arugula Salad w/ Strawberry Citrus Vinaigrette
Slow Smoked South Texas Antelope (Bone In Leg)
Sauteed Mixed Field Greens & Caramelized Green Onions
Japanese Yam Salad with Hen Yolks & Mustard Seed
Coconut Oil Truffles with Cocoa Nibs & Sea Salt
Strawberry Honey “Cobbler”
