Do you paleo? Is it an all the time kind of thing? Is it how you eat or how you live?
I mean seriously… I want to know if this paleo thing is just another way of keeping your focus on food and diet. Because that’s how I see it.
I am so frustrated by how many seemingly intelligent people latch on to these concepts, when it’s really just another way to diet. I’m willing to bet that many of those who embrace “paleo” define the benefits of the diet by the amount of weight that they’ve lost. Please tell me, if you paleo, why do you paleo? What made you jump on this particular bandwagon? Was weight loss your motivation?
Paleo appears to be just another external manipulation of food, another fad diet, another attempt to control food. Paleo defines what kind of foods are acceptable or not and following the diet requires “rules” around what you are supposed to or not supposed to eat. Sounds like a “diet” to me.. so please don’t feed me(pardon the pun) more of that nonsense about it being a lifestyle, because we all stopped living that way thousands of years ago.
It used to be you had to move your body in order to get the food. In our non-paleo world, we eat and then we exercise in order to negate the calories. Do you actually think for one second our ancestors thought about calories and how they looked in their skimpiest loin-cloth?
Exercise is an artificial way of moving the body because what is natural to the body has been taken away from us by our current environment. We should be smart enough to know that moving the body is beneficial, yet we still sit in our cars, at our desks and on our couches for far too long. We hope to counter the effects of not moving with extended bouts of exercise. Unfortunately, even exercise cannot undo the damage of eight hours of sitting as reported in this recent study.
Eating paleo cannot undo our lack of movement. Critical to our ancestors’ survival was hunting and gathering in order to have enough food to eat. In our world today, we equate survival with making more money, earning a living, going to work. In order to buy food and have enough to eat, we must make money. That is our survival mechanism. Our ancestors had to deal with the sabre-tooth tiger and we have to deal with corporate policy and bad bosses.
Apparently, we have a modern problem that cannot simply be addressed by eating paleo. We are no longer living in a Paleolithic world. The threat to our health and well-being is the stress of living in a modern world where hunting is finding a job and gathering is collecting a paycheck. The threat of famine is not the result of a drought of water but of financial resources. Our jobs determine whether or not we have food to eat or a home to live in. When our survival depends upon our jobs, that causes stress. That stress is compounded when we cannot move, trapped in our jobs or at our desks.
What is our paleo solution to this very un-paleo-like problem? Worrying about the composition of our diets really doesn’t solve the problem, does it? How then do we combat the stress of our modern, non-paleo lives?
I propose we pay attention to our bodies and what our bodies need in order to survive in this world. Of course, food that nourishing to our bodies is important. However, the body has needs that go beyond nutrition.
The body needs to move. Not just exercise… move.
Finally and most importantly, the body needs to know it is safe. When our minds are constantly racing, worried about what might happen or fretting over what has already happened, the body cannot feel safe. This is our greatest task in caring for ourselves, our bodies and our well-being – creating safety.
Body Mind Intelligence recognizes how thoughts create our sense of well-being. Body Mind Intelligence requires focusing on the needs of the body through internal change rather than through external force. We are responsible for creating a safe place for our bodies and ourselves by gaining a sense of control over our own fears. That is called faith.
Learn to pay attention to your body in a nurturing way. Watch the thoughts that create stress. Have faith.
Tell me your thoughts. How do you create well-being? Is it what you eat or what you believe?
