“Israeli researchers studying the nutrition of Stone Age humans say the species spent some 2 million years as hyper-carnivorous “apex predators” that ate mostly the meat of large animals.”
Personal development programs are popular in today's 'fix me because I'm broken' culture. The promise for 10x growth sells.
However, all self-improvement programs, mindfulness strategies and retreats forget one key element to healing: the animal.
The animal – your flesh, bones and organs – is made of complex proteins and fats that require the correct fuel for synthesis, growth and replication. When the animal’s fuel source is compromised, no amount of chanting in a Siberian cave will have an immediate impact on creating the life you envision.
Don’t get me wrong. A vision is important. A compelling future is the first step in moving towards your desired goal. But healing your animal flesh must start with two fundamental actions before affirmations take presidency: eating a species-appropriate diet and moving in ways that challenge your animal’s mechanics.
Humans Ate Meat for 2 Million Years 🥩
A recent study was published by a university in Tel Aviv that "says Stone Age humans were apex predators, [and] only moved to more plant-based diet 85,000 years ago.“
While I believe plants serve a vital purpose in our evolution, I don't think they should make up more than 5-20% of our diet. Plants, in the human diet at least, are designed for times of meat scarcity and medicinal use.
Plants have been used for thousands of years for not only healing the body but the mind. My life has been personally influenced by the mind-altering effects of psychedelic plant compounds. I attribute my extreme compassion to the Ego dissolving effects of plant medicine.
Plants are crazy intelligent creatures.
Plants don’t want to be eaten. Their only defence against predators is chemical warfare. Those chemical compounds interfere with hormones and nerve function in the animals digestive system to signal to the predator to stay away.
Plants use chemicals. Animals use fight. A White-tailed deer may not have oxalate dumping poison to fend off a wild wolf, but it has legs to run and horns to fight.
First Things First: Eat a Species-Appropriate Diet 💪
Your healing journey must begin with the single step of making protein and fat a dominant part of your diet. Different people believe different things. I respect all views on diet. My personal diet philosophy is that a human diet should be Mostly Meat.
If humans ate meat for over 2 million years and only converged to more plant-based 85,000 years ago, that means that of our entire existence, we have eaten meat 95% of the time.
That serves as a good measure of what your diet must look like.
95% of your calories should be fatty meat and the rest can be seen as wiggle room. I know what you are thinking: wiggle room is extremely undefined. So let me define it.
Wiggle room is not pizza, hotdogs or soda. Wiggle room is foods that still fit in the Ketovore Diet domain. These foods, as Dr Paul Saladino defines them, are the least toxic plant foods (I still drink coffee though).
These include avocados, berries, raw honey, etc. 👇
Move Like You’re Human 🏋️♂️
The next step is moving in ways that we were designed to. Basics like walking, running, squatting and lifting cannot be underestimated in their importance for everyday vitality and strength.
The way you move affects your entire biology. I don’t like the term exercise. It sounds like a chore – something that you have to do because your Mother In Law – aka your consciousness: your observer – is ‘watching.’
I prefer movement.
If the Tel Aviv study on humans eating meat for millennia is true, it is logical to assume we did a shit load of walking.
Walking is the foundational movement of being human.
To walk is to live.
To walk is to breathe.
To walk is to meditate.
Beyond walking, other movements include running, CrossFit, boet-sessions (bicep curls etc.) and just about anything that challenges your biology in new and fun ways (a game of tennis, a round of golf, a 5-a-side football match.
Your goal should not be a goal in the realm of movement. Your aim should not be to lose X number of pounds or run a marathon under X number of minutes.
Your outcome should be consistency.
You should aim to, as James Clear so greatly put it in Atomic Habits, cast a vote for the person you would like to become. I love this phraseology.
Each time you say yes to your new habit of walking or eating a species-appropriate diet, you are saying no subconsciously to the old you. You are creating a new identity for yourself.
Movement is human. Move like it’s your job. Make movement part of your being.
The more you heal the more time you will have. Your time will need fulfilment. That’s why people that ‘have it all’ turn to spiritual pursuits after the madness that is wealth creation.
With great healing comes great responsibility. Your healing journey will open up an entirely new world.
Before you embark on your spiritual journey, and if you seek healing, ask yourself if you have given your biology the best chance for making better choices.
Are you healing the animal in conjunction with the spiritual?
Heal the Body and the Mind will appear.