It was very cool to see the evolution of the Paleo f(x) conference this year. It grew exponentially, but still had all the punch of last year and the very grassroots and community oriented vibe. As you were walking around in 2015 the judgment seemed to be less (or at least I felt it was less). People were happier and less worried about how Paleo they were in comparison to others.
The attachment to the purity seemed to be waning. Some might think this is a horrific fall from grace, but we must come to terms with the fact that we are looking backward to move forward.
I don’t see the Paleo movement as a diet anymore. I think of ancestral health as a mindset revolved around being respectful of both our evolution and physiology. Getting light when we need it, being involved with a tribe, planning time for play, and of course – eating the highest quality food we can get our paws on.
For instance, one of the most enlightening presentations was Sexual Fitness and Mating. It was incredible. Dr. Geoffrey Miller discussed how marriage by capture has been a huge part of human culture for hundreds of thousands of years and how this may explain why Stockholm syndrome and the intricacies of male dominance are so complex. This part of our history is not as Care-Bearish as adding in organic tubers cooked on an open fire, but identifying it can help us be more understanding.
Instead of saying, “What’s wrong with you for staying with that brash meathead who treats you like absolute shit?”, we can see the strength of this connection goes far beyond just this instance and thus we come at it from a place of understanding, not judgement. And we ask how do we break the cycle?
This is such an important topic that I’ll be dedicating an entire post to it. Check back soon.
There were also a plethora of Functional Medicine docs both attending and speaking at the conference. It is really really exciting to see ancestral health blending with the Functional Medicine model. This duo is going to be very powerful and allow people to further individualize the path they take to heal.
Over the weekend we spent the majority of our time running OmegaWave evaluations on attendees and speakers.
Omegawave is portable, non-invasive technology that allows for a comprehensive assessment of your individual rReadiness for upcoming training loads.
The Omegawave solution is based on an ’integrated systemic approach’ to the assessment of short- and long-term adaptational changes in the body. Monitoring these changes makes it possible to efficiently manage your preparation, as well as to individualize and optimize training loads, leading to optimal results with lower adaptational costs.
As the solution provides immediate physiological feedback, you can improve your stress resistance and work capacity, avoid overreaching that leads to overtraining, reduce the risk of illness and injury, and enhance your quality of life.”
There was a lot of coffee to be had in the convention center and people were definitely excited, so in the OmegaWave evals we did, sympathetic dominance was the norm – especially amongst the speakers.
However, the most mind-blowing thing to me was that out of these 30+ evaluations, not one person had a low detoxification score. This score is a check engine light for the Brain to Gut axis and we usually see it light up like a Christmas tree in the general sugar/gluten pounding population.
Thus, Major Kudos to the Paleo crowd! Anecdotally, there is something very powerful going on here (or perhaps confirmation bias).
On the other side of the coin, we saw hyperventilation in nearly every eval., This signifies to me that breathing is a key issue for this community. We need to learn how to exhale and we need to use the bottom 60-70% of our lungs. Period.
Better breathing means better movement, better tissue quality, better brain health, and it is the best way to get into a restful state so we can truly digest food, grow, and recover from the stress of this non-paleo life. You can turn everything around in one breath and it’s always available to you.
Let’s do it right now.
8 seconds, breathe in.
8 seconds, exhale and get every last bit of stale air out.
Hold for 4 seconds and repeat this tempo for 5 to 10 min.
Now that you have freaked everyone out around you with your heavy breathing, it is time to take a bite of that bison sirloin. As you chew 20-40 times, stare out into that green yonder and imagine how much more paleo you will be this time next year.
If you didn’t attend, commit, because it’s incredibly motivating to walk around in a place where other humans care so much for the origin of their food and question the deviation of the modern machine that can spin our lives out of control.
A huge thank you to Keith Norris and Efficient Exercise for bringing us in for this year’s festivities. You will definitely learn things you didn’t know, but more importantly, you might also be introduced to topics you didn’t know you didn’t know.
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