Today’s PrimalMed Prescription…are YOU PrimalMed®️ approved?
Can we embrace being imperfect?.. Or at least Closer to Fine?
Are you PrimalMed approved?
I really can’t answer that. Only YOU should be able to answer that since seeking approval from anyone other than yourself can lead to a whole host of issues. To paraphrase the Stoics, you should be tolerant of others but strict with yourself.
If you are reading this post, then you ARE interested in taking responsibility for your own health and wellness. You ARE interested in learning about an ancestral approach to nutritional health and wellness. You ARE interested in hearing some random musings about metabolic health as seen through the lens of a radiologist.
Welcome to PrimalMed!
So…what does it mean to be PrimalMed approved? Does it mean enjoying a $10 cold Sam Adams at Fenway on a summer evening? Does it mean actually ALLOWING yourself to enjoy said beer? Does it mean AVOIDING the overpriced watery gluten drenched liver toxin? If we want to embrace the PrimalMed lifestyle, we must first ask ourselves…Am I PrimalMed approved and more to the point, Do I want to be PrimalMed approved?
So ladies and gents… here’s a discussion on being perfectly IMPERFECT and striving to be, as the Indigo Girls have suggested, Closer to Fine!
Hey, it’s our first embedded video clip… see that little purple circle with the white arrow in the center? Click it.👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
July 21, 2023. Fenway Park. Boston, MA. I had a beer. To be clear, I finished about half of the beer and had PrimalMed Jr. knock off the rest. Ah, to be 28 again.
My last post discussed the concept of thinking of PrimalMed, and the PrimalMed spear as a tool, and as a followup, I want to touch on the art of embracing imperfection.
Tool #1. Embrace being perfectly imperfect!
And introducing Tool #2: The Pareto Principle…and how it applies to Your PrimalMed Prescription.
Let’s go back to Italy and learn about the Pareto principle. It’s the story of a 19th century Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto who observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by just 20% of the population. This concept holds up in many fields besides economics, and is very relevant when thinking about the asymmetric or uneven distribution of cause and effect.
You can read more about it here 👉 What’s the Pareto Principle?
Bottom line is that 20% of your inputs are responsible for 80% of the observable outputs. Take care of the basics or the low-hanging fruit, as we say and don’t drown in the minutia. Don’t ‘major in the minors!’
Pay attention to the basic PrimalMed principles most of the time and you’ll probably wind up OK. The Pareto principle allows you to be imperfect.
Yeah, we have spoken about some of the basic concepts that are so obvious that they fall in to the No sh*t Sherlock, oh and thank you Captain Obvious domain:
PrimalMed nutrition: Just Eat Real Food. Eat a species-appropriate diet. If you are a slave to ultra-processed frankenfoods, then no amount of supplements are going to help. So stop even thinking about the best multivitamin or collagen supplement until you are eating like an adult.
PrimalMed movement: Walk and PrimalMed squats, planks and pushups. Avoid the stress of chronic, excessive cardio. Maintain lean body muscle. Don’t obsess about the latest Instagram fitspo workout if you can’t do 10 pushups, 10 squats or plank for a minute. You get the picture.
Other PrimalMed pillars such as optimal sleep, stress mitigation, community connections appear to be so basic and at a bare bones minimum need to be dialed in first before becoming overwhelmed with the seemingly infinite esoteric solutions we can learn on the internet. Focus your efforts on the most basic 20% and you’ll derive 80% of the desired outcome.
These all seem SO obvious. And they should be.
So step away from the iPad!
We all are NOT perfect. We are not like all those Fit-fluencers on the socials that can do no wrong and are flashing six pack abs and buns of steel and showing us all their picture perfect lives.
Not at all. We are imperfect humans trying our best to make sense of it all and trying to optimize our healthspan by embracing ancestral diet and lifestyle patterns.
So back to the story of the beer at Fenway and the Pareto principle. Yes, I had the beer. Half of the beer. I shared a foot long Fenway Italian sausage with PrimalMed Jr. I knowingly and willfully drank a direct toxin to my liver. BREAD too 😱. I survived.
My mitochondria doth protest too much but the foundation held. What about the other inputs? I had a great time at the ballgame. Chatting with other Mets and Sox fans while they too enjoyed a Fenway frank and Sam Adams. The game was interrupted by what I can only describe as the most hellacious rain/thunder/lightening storm I have ever seen. PrimalMed Jr. and I forged ahead in the monsoon and ran the mile back to the car feeling as if we had unleashed our animal spirits. And as a rare bonus, the Mets were up 4-3 when the game was called. Good times.
Community? Yes. Laughter and stress mitigation? Yes. Some PrimalMed components after all!
We MUST recognize that we can get 80% of the way to our metabolic health goals by focusing on the best 20% of our efforts. Most of us will imbibe from time to time. We can’t always exclude vegetable and seed oils if we dine out, but we can try to minimize the exposure. Sometimes, we find ourselves in Portland, Maine and are standing in line at the Holy Donut ordering a few blueberry specials. It happens.
Alcohol? On a physiological level, it is a direct toxin to the liver. Alcohol cannot be stored by your body so it is used as a preferential fuel source, and displaces the utilization of carbs, and fats as fuel.
And those calories wind up being stored in your keister!
Alcohol, when imbibed too often and in excess will lead to a fatty liver, and visceral fat deposition around your very vital abdominal organs. Too much visceral fat leads to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is thought by many to be the root cause of obesity, diabetes and a whole downstream boatload of metabolic disease states. PrimalMD says…in no way is pounding down a six pack every weekend with the bros an optimal strategy to achieve metabolic health and wellness.😱
An occasional indulgence with friends and family? Why not. On some days, we do need to put a little life in to living. We are perfectly IMperfect.
TL;DR
Are you PrimalMed approved?
You can look in the mirror and only YOU can answer that.
Embrace Tool #1: Allow for occasional imperfection.
and
Tool #2: Employ the Pareto principle!
Focus on the big rocks and not the pebbles. It seems so dang obvious but we all need an occasional pause and reset to get back and revisit the basics.
The top 20% of your inputs WILL provide 80% of your outcomes so make ‘em count. You’ll know what they are. Then go to the ballgame and create some fun memories.
And remember, we are all on our way to being Closer to Fine.
Hey there, it is the summer of Barbie! So chill out and enjoy the tunes:
But of course, there’s the OG which I prefer:
Did you know?
PrimalMed, LLC can provide Health Coaching and Consultations on Primal lifestyle and Metabolic Health. PrimalMD is not only a curious radiologist, but is a certified Primal Health Coach, KetoMastery Coach and member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners (primalmed.com).
PrimalRD provides nutritional counseling from an integrative/functional perspective through our subsidiary Nutrition and Wellness Consulting, LLC (nutritionwellnessllc.com)
And PrimalMed®️ and PrimalMed Prescription®️ are officially trademarked! Can a PrimalMed Approved! T-shirt or mug be in your future?
Observation: The Pareto principle holds true! 20% of our subscribers provide over 80% of the engagement via emails, comments and shares!
Hey, I just realized: 20% of the clothes in my closet get 80% of the wear time! Time to thin the herd and clean out the losers.
Can you think of moments in your experiences where the Pareto Principle rings true? Can you think of how YOU can use it to get Closer to Fine?
Don’t be shy…Share your Pareto principle examples in the comments section below! 👇
Great lesson as always.. I have a lot to learn about my 80%
Great post, Ted. Really important to put something like this out because a lot of people in this health community, myself included, are perfectionists with a zero defect policy.