This post was originally written for my friend Kathryn at Primal Bliss. Reposted here for posterity

That banner that says “Social Life” up there is from the Smithsonian’s webpage on ‘What does is mean to be human?’

Take a moment to really soak in that image… take your time. It’s worth a ponder.

What is your primal instinct telling you right now?

I’ll cut to the chase. According to the Smithsonian, there are specific traits that, over geologic time (from ~6 million years ago to the present), uniquely identify certain primates as human beings. Those traits include:

1. The ability to walk upright as a primary mode of locomotion
2. Increasing brain size through time
3. The use of tools to make other tools for hunting and cooking
4. Complex language & written history
5. Evolution of specific body morphologies
6. Complex Social Structures

It’s no secret that we have come a loooooooong way. Our human-ness today is very different from that of our early ancestors. Technically, we still fit the definition of human-hood – we should, we defined it. But on a more emotional and physical level, are we losing the art of being human? Let’s gain some perspective and review these traits.

1)  Walking Upright – This is a very important distinction for human beings. We are the only primate that walks upright as our primary mode of locomotion.

As a result of human ingenuity, we have homes, offices, cars, electricity, we have a global transportation and e-commerce network to bring everything easily within our reach. We now have to go out of our way to NOT live sedentary lives. Fact is, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Our ancestors evolved a specialized mode of locomotion – and today, our health suffers, our muscles are atrophied, our bones weakened, our circulation sluggish – primarily because we aren’t fully utilizing those fine legs and curved spine that make us human.

Opportunity: Increase your functional movements. Use that body more often like your ancestors did.

2)  Larger Brains – Scientists interpret from the fossil record that early humans evolved larger brains, starting around 6 million years ago. The largest relative increase in brain size occurred during a period of extreme climatic fluctuation AND during a time when our ancestors began to use fire to cook food.

I now call your attention to this article, entitled “If Modern Humans Are So Smart Why Are Our Brains Shrinking?” from Discover online. And I quote John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin Anthropologist:

“Over the past 20,000 years, the average volume of the human male brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimeters to 1,350 cc, losing a chunk the size of a tennis ball. The female brain has shrunk by about the same proportion.”

So what’s going on here? Popular theories for brain shrinkage include global warming selecting for smaller skeletons, malnutrition due to the advent of agriculture & the introduction of a grain-heavy diet, changes in population density, and the domestication of the human species. Whatever the actual cause, we are now seeing a dramatic shift in the long-term brain-size trend that characterizes human evolution.

Is there an opportunity here?: Maybe. Although it depends on what brain size means. Is a bigger brain evolutionarily advantageous? Does it matter what your brain size is if your neurons aren’t firing? Of the theories of brain shrinkage listed above, you have the most control over your nutrition and perhaps how ‘domesticated’ you are. Go get some fresh air, follow your primal instincts, and then donate that brain of yours to science.

3)  Tools & Food – Early humans used hand-crafted tools to make other tools. Early humans – as early as 2.6 million years ago – made tools to hunt for and butcher animals for food.

Early tools were created & powered by early humans. Their own functional movements (running, jumping, throwing, climbing, sawing, digging…) were key to utilizing those tools. Our modern tools are still created by other tools – but are powered by clicks, swipes, switches, or even more fundamentally by electricity and gasoline. These technological advances create an entirely new set of human functional movements – capitalizing instead on our fine motor skills.

As far as our food supply – well, this is one of the main drivers of Paleo/Primal/Ancestral Health movement. The short story is that in an attempt to maintain a healthy human population, we have decreased the diversity, nutrient density, and microbiota of our food supply, all while increasing the quantities of food we ingest and our toxic load. Ironically, only the healthiest humans (who are probably the most primal of the modern humans) can withstand this burden. The increase in our overall toxic load (whether it be from processed food, pesticides, herbicides, fragrances, household & industrial chemicals) coupled with our decrease in movement has, over multiple generations, resulted in our offspring being weaker & weaker (increase in diabetes, obesity, behavioral problems, asthma, allergies, chronic illness, you name it).

Uh-oh humans…

Opportunity: There is a great opportunity to get crafty. Use your human ingenuity to solve problems. While we’re not all out hunting for food these days, we can increase our functional movements through play – and manual labor around the house.  And finally, decrease your toxic load by opting for whole foods and by avoiding man-made chemicals aren’t native to our bodies.

4)  Language & Symbols – Humans are unique among primates because we have developed so many different ways to communicate with each other. We also have the ability to write it down, to leave a written historical record.

This is one aspect of human-ness that we’ve capitalized on pretty well. According to Wikipedia, there are at least 7000 different human languages. Modern humans are now busy creating computer languages too. Our diverse physical and virtual communication skills are awesome.

That said, the bulk of our written language/history these days is in the form of data.  One estimate (as of 2010) is that we create as much data every 2 days, as we did from the dawn of civilization up to the year 2003. Every minute, “YouTube users upload 48 hours of video, Facebook users share 684,478 pieces of content, Instagram users share 3,600 new photos, and Tumblr sees 27,778 new posts published (Neil Spencer, 2012).”

If this trend continues… our personal communication skills are likely to atrophy right along with our muscles.

Opportunity: Take it offline. Bone up on your story-telling skills. Use your imagination.  Create artwork to share. Exercise your verbal communication skills every now and then. Practice physically writing – perhaps a hand-written note to a friend or family member.

5)  Evolving Bodies – Human bodies have changed in size and shape from short & wide to tall & narrow.  Scientists speculate the change in morphology is based on changes in diet and/or changes in climate. Based on the short size & wide shape of their bodies as well as their skull structure, the earliest human species (around 6 million years ago) are interpreted to have had a plant-based diet. By about 1.9 million years ago – our human ancestors were taller & narrower, coincident with warming climates and a change in diet to include meat and other more quickly digestible foods. Taller, narrower bodies are thought to dissipate heat more readily, an adaptive strategy for life in warmer climates, whereas more compact human species were better suited for colder climates.

Today, we can live in all climatic conditions thanks to insulation/shelter, heat, light, and transportation. For the most part, we’ve eliminated that physical stressor. But by doing that, we’ve also eliminated a pretty major evolutionary force – our interaction with the outside world. We’re changing our relationship with the sun, with the earth, with day & night. Who knows how we’ll eventually adapt to this…

Today, humans of all sizes and shapes have vastly different dietary approaches. We have the luxury of choosing what food to eat – nevermind whether or not it’s actually fit for human consumption. When in our evolutionary past did we have this opportunity?

Opportunity: Get outside more often, spend time in nature, get some sun.  Challenge yourself to be a locavore, you’ll be eating whole, seasonal foods like your ancestors did.

6)  Social Life – While most primates have social structures, humans have developed an extreme social structure with its roots in human child rearing. Human babies take nearly twice as long to mature to independence as our closest living relatives (chimpanzees). To ensure survival of the species, humans developed communities to work together for the benefit of the group. There is evidence of campfires or early hearths beginning around 800,000 years ago. This may have been an important place for socialization.   

Our ancestors may have been a part of 1-2 different groups in their lives. There were strong bonds in those groups. Their lives depended on those groups.

So, how many groups do you belong to these days? The social structure of modern humans is so incredibly complex, informed by our diversity, and it’s getting more complex every day. Our social structure now involves families, extended families, and step families, hundreds (if not thousands) of religious groups, countless local community related groups… and then we get to virtual communities… I personally belong to 26 groups on Facebook and I’d bet that’s well below average. Our expanded definition of ‘community’ today is dizzying.

Opportunity: Trim some fluff. Focus on building & maintaining meaningful relationships.

Which brings us full circle. Take another look at that image at the top of this post. From that page, you can ‘like’ or ‘tweet’ or ‘email’ to all of your peeps and their peeps about the importance of the social network of early humans from the comfort of your chair in a one-way electronic conversation. The new story telling.

We are human – and we are not exempt from the process of evolution. Our human-ness today is very different from that of early human species.

Maybe being human is not so much a lost art as a new media. Maybe I’m just being nostalgic. But let’s not forget about our uniquely human traits and consider a wider, deeper perspective to inform our lives – and our health – going forward.

 

This FREE resource is for women who are ready to regain control of their health, of their LIFE. 

Because somewhere along the way… you LOST CONTROL.

Yeah, when was that exactly? For me, it wasn’t until my mid 30’s.  And boy did I have a wake up call.

What happens to us when we’re not feeling right?  When our brain is foggy, when our energy is drained, when we lose interests in taking care of ourselves, maybe our hair is falling out, or our period is wonky, we can’t seem to lose weight.  We seek medical attention, that’s what happens to us.

We’re often medicated to fix what ails us.

Turns out, we were taught that someone else is the expert in us.  We are convinced that we need medical diagnosis and second opinions, convinced that we need conventional testing and dietary advice from people who are taught that there is only one way to nourish yourself.

That, my friend, is bullshit.

You are, in fact, the expert in you… or you should be… and I’m about to help you to see that.

You have a primal instinct… and this instinct is fighting to be heard.  You also have a unique set of circumstances that has shaped your mind and body everyday since you were born. It is my challenge to meet you where you are, and to help you to hear and to trust that primal instinct of yours.

I have created a free 52-week email series that is designed to help bring clarity to your health goals, to get you to question your particular approach to health, to get you to try a few new and unconventional things, to help you to celebrate yourbadself, to help you appreciate the you-ness of you, and to literally evict what YOU decide to be toxic foods, thoughts, relationships, and habits from your life so that you can create an environment where your body can heal from all that life has thrown at it.

Only then will you gain health.

And I’m sooo excited for you, because if you follow this approach – you’ll have regained control, and you’ll want to pay it forward so badly it hurts.

Click the header above, or the image below to sign up.

Hurry up too, before I decide that I’m crazy for giving it all away.

To your health!

Meredith

 

 

I see a lot of ‘success’ infographics out there.

What is success?  Success is very sought after – it means that you have met a goal, or have achieved wealth, it means that you have attempted to do something – and have completed the task it in a way that was desired.

But what does it mean to YOU?

Did you realize that YOU get to define success?

Let’s run through some logic statements…

Example 1: Success to me is losing XX pounds.  Therefore, I am not successful unless I lose XX pounds, and I am unsuccessful every day until I have met my goal.

Example 2: Success to me is doing something that makes me physically stronger, each day.  Therefore, I can be successful today by doing 5 push ups.

See the difference?  Set yourself up for success friend – you can make your journey highly successful by setting the right goals – and celebrating your awesomeness more often.

And while we’re at it… let me throw my infographics into the mix.

 

Also… this is also perfectly acceptable:

I feel the need to explain.

If we drew a line in the sand, and stood in front of it today – fully intending to step over that line and start a new journey from this day forward – we would all have a different starting place.  This we know to be true.  And by starting place, I mean a combination of things… like:

• Our age
• Our relative health
• Our knowledge of our own bodies
• Our daily habits / routine
• Our trust in our food system
• Our relationship with our doctors
• How empowered we feel
• How motivated we are
• Our happiness / satisfaction with life
• Our support system
• Our value system
• Our personality type
• Our experience
• Our homelife
• Our desire to learn
• Our religious beliefs
• How we were raised
• Our financial comfort
• Our self image
• Our emotions
• Our personal goals
• If and for how long we’ve been suffering
• Our resistance to change

I don’t need to tell you that we’re all different – you are human, you have life experience… this is something you know.

FACT.

But – no matter what our starting point is, there is something we should all understand.  Our starting point today is the sum total of all of our life experiences, it’s the sum total of the way we move, the food we eat, the sleep we get, the relationships we have, the education we received, the people who raised us, the communities we live in.  Our bodies and minds have been shaped by our experiences throughout our life, for better or worse.

ALSO FACT.

Therefore – if you have desire to change in any way, physically, emotionally, or mentally, you should know that you will have to change your life experiences going forward.

ENTER: YOUR 52-WEEK KICK-IN-THE-ASS

My goal with this email series is to prompt you to have a think about the status quo, to ferret out what’s not working – and to get you to introduce new daily habits that WILL move you in a direction toward your goals.  There is no fast track to health, happiness, awesomeness, super-hero status… positive incremental change will get you there sustainably.

I know, I know… that’s not what you wanted to hear…

But the opportunity here is this: A pleasurable, leisurely life experience where you prioritize the JOURNEY rather than the END RESULT.  

[Oooo… I like that… sign me up for a life of pleasure and leisure please]

When you make drastic change, you create all sorts of stress, you’re probably not enjoying yourself, you are hyper-focused on the end result, and you’ll likely miss out on your life.  Not only that, but what do you do when you reach your ‘end-result’?  If you fall back on old habits because you’re exhausted, or because you’re done ‘dieting’ then your body will physically and mentally bounce back to it’s starting point – or surpass it.  Awesome.

I know this well, I was in that position not too long ago. I prioritized my time at the gym over my time with my family – became neurotic about it too – had to go 5-6 times a week to feel like I was exercising. Oh, I lost weight, you can read about it here… but I lost a serious amount of health too.  <<< Fast forward a couple of years and I’m healthier now than I’ve ever been, and today I hit the ‘gym’ 1-2 times a week, if that.

How about this idea?  If you seek change, celebrate your life everyday – by trying something new.  Enjoy the experience and know that if you make slow change toward choices that you know to be better for you, create new habits… you will reap the rewards.

 

Who doesn’t love a good ah-ha! moment?  As I sit here thinking about my own life changing moments, I realize that these are moments that I’ve told stories about… and for many, they are life changing only in retrospect.  This list is also very telling for me, this was a great exercise…

1)  I realized that I mattered. (UPDATE: Ironically – I’m re-realizing this right now, re-pivoting)

In retrospect, this is about low-self-esteem-theater, about my first boyfriend and what he taught me about me. Can you believe that I met my first boyfriend on a blind date…in 8th grade?  Who does that?  I do, that’s who.  I dated this guy for 5 years… We had fun.  We were polar opposites, and I think that was part of the intrigue.  He lived in the middle of nowhere, had motorcycles and guns, farmed pigs, hated school, and didn’t like to socialize, at all.  I lived in the middle of town (small town), had big hair, lots of friends, and loved school.  When I went away to college, I realized that there were other guys out there… guys I had more in common with.  I also realized the reasons that I stayed in that relationship.  I didn’t want to fail, I didn’t want to hurt him, and I loved being loved.  Not the best basis for a relationship.  It never occurred to me that this relationship could end, that by being a pleaser, I was denying my own feelings.  I did finally understand that this relationship wasn’t what I wanted.

2)  I realized that I should love my work.

This is about my first ‘career change’ – before I even had a career.  In college, I was bound and determined to be in management… I figured I could be a good leader, and managers made some money, right?  So I enrolled in the business management program and proceeded to take accounting and ethics and finite math classes.  I went to class everyday with college freshmen wearing suits, while I was wearing irregulars from the Champion outlet up the street.  This wasn’t my crowd.  One day I had an epiphany that scared the hell out of me.  Suppose I graduated with a degree in Business Management? What was it that I would be passionate enough about to manage?  What if I was stuck in a managerial role in the most boring job in the world?  Ugh.  Back to the drawing board.  There was no way I could head down this path.

3)  I realized that I like a challenge.

Thank you Janine.  My college roommate was failing/hating Geology 101 miserably while I was going through my freshman freakout about business management.  I almost left school because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do there.  I started to flip through Janine’s geology text, and while she was struggling to get it, I found it pretty interesting.  As I was lamenting my future, Janine took one look at me and said, “I see you as a rock, stars, bug-bio, kind of person.  You need to go talk to the Geology Dept.”  So, I went to chat with the department chair who tried to scare me away by saying, “If you want to make a living doing Geology, you’ll need a graduate degree.  This department is quite competitive, this isn’t rocks for jocks.”  Game on.  That was a challenge I had to accept.

4)  I realized I was never far from home.

As a geologist, you are home wherever you are.  I felt this the first time when I was in Hawaii during a geology field trip in college.  As I sat there on the Halina Pali imagining the Hawaiian Islands catastrophically falling apart into the Pacific Ocean, I realized how lucky I was to be able to view and interpret the Earth’s scenery.  That no matter where I was in the world, I’d have a geologic story to tell, and that story would connect me to the Earth, my home.  Deep, I know… and somehow comforting.

5) I realized that ‘time’ had a lot of control over me.

In grad school, I spent a summer working for Exxon down in Houston.  I was buried deep in an office tower amidst computers, indoor climate control, windowless walls, and literally – alone.  When I wasn’t staring at a computer screen in the dark by myself, I was attending meetings.  At the end of 3 months, I needed to escape technology, stale air, and ‘virtual everything’ for the complete opposite.  So upon my re-entry into society, I was whisked away to northern Wisconsin for 4 days of camping in the middle of nowhere. Not only that, but I wasn’t allowed to wear my  watch.  We were going to wake up when we woke up, eat when we were hungry, and go to bed when we were tired.  This was an intervention for sure.  It took me a few days to stop consulting my wrist before making any decisions.  This to me, was life changing – and put me back in touch with my needs – yet again.

6) I realized that I could turn off the news.

Whoa, really?  You have control over the news?    After September 11, 2001… I became addicted to the news.  I feel like this is a common story.  Everyone was scared, in a state of disbelief, and wanting answers.  I couldn’t stop watching TV or tuning into MSNBC online to get updates of what was happening in the world.  I became stressed out and anxious.  I also couldn’t get anything accomplished, my self-induced anxiety was getting in the way of my life.  The day I realized that I didn’t have to be so informed… that day was freeing.  I slowly regained my life after that.

7) I realized that family matters.

This may seem like an obvious realization… but it took some major life events to drive this one home.  My extended family isn’t all that close, physically and emotionally. My immediate family is pretty small, and we don’t live anywhere near each other either. My Grammy died shortly after September 11th, and her funeral was scheduled in NJ & I was in grad school in WI. To attend her funeral, I would have to fly into Newark, NJ… which was one of the last places on Earth that I wanted to be.  I had decided that I couldn’t go.  I didn’t have money and I wasn’t in the right state of mind to make the trip.  The day before her funeral, I had a serious ah-ha moment.  This was my Grammy, my Dad’s mom, she had died… people were gathering to celebrate her life… my Dad needed me to be there… I needed me to be there. From that moment on, there would be no second guessing my presence at funerals. I made it there just in time.

8) I realized that I am not a patient.

This was an important distinction for me to make – and it turns out, it opened me up to some unconventional thinking. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I knew that I would not be giving birth in a hospital. Here’s how this moment went down. When we were gearing up to start a family, I met with a gynecologist to have what I considered to be a ‘pre-conception’ check up.  As I sat there wrapped in gown on the table, I told the doc that this was my expectation.  She said to me, “Well, what do you need to know?  It’s not all that hard really.”  <<< stunned silence>>>  Well, that moment, I received all that I needed to know from this woman. Pregnancy is not an illness, therefore, doctors were not the best equipped to help me. From there, I found my midwife, who met with me, with my clothes on… for 3 hours to discuss my concerns and needs.  Child #1 was born at her birth center, and child #2 was born at home.

9) I realized that I had more control over my health than I was taught to believe.

This moment came to me in the last few years.  After deciding to lose weight to ‘get healthy’, I found just the opposite to be true.  My weight loss (I lost weight using Weight Watchers, which essentially restricted my food intake) created a cascade of health concerns for me, from extra heartbeats, to hair loss, to amenorrhea, to anxiety… And once again, my doctor could not help me see what was going on.  I went in to see her with complaints of a fluttering in my chest and hair loss – and she did some blood tests, confirmed that I was healthy, and punted me to a psychiatrist.  Awesome.  At that point, I realized that I was the expert in me, not her.  And that my health was going to be in my hands.  My familiarity with science and research made my quest for health a bit easier, as I knew how to critically evaluate health and nutrition studies.  One day, I was fortunate enough to run across Dr. Terry Wahls Ted Talk, and the rest was history.  Her experience made me realize that food was my medicine, that I needed to evaluate what I was putting in to my body, evaluate what was being used by the very cells that make up my body.  As a geologist with some evolutionary training, it also made sense to me that human beings have a natural diet – just as any other species in the wild.  This was powerful information, and incredibly life changing.

10)  I realized that I had something to give.

This sort of comes full circle for me.  After gaining my health back, I found myself so passionate about health & wellness, so passionate about sharing what I had learned.  Could it be that I’ve finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up… again?  So, now I know that 1) I mattered, 2) I have to do what I love, 3) that I love a challenge, 4) that I can feel comfortable & safe wherever I am, 5) I’m more than a time-piece, 6) that I didn’t have to pay attention to or believe outright what other people around me are saying, 7) I know that family matters, that people matter, 8) that we shouldn’t all be patients, and 9) that we have more control over our health than we were taught to believe… I realized that I had something to give.  This moment came when my husband noticed that my interest in health & wellness was clearly overshadowing my interested in desktop geology.  He’s the one who opened up the possibility to me that I might consider going back to school (I went to school for 10 years to be a geologist… I guess, I hate to fail you see).  Now, as a certified Health Coach, I intend to live out my years with purpose & intention.

There will be many more life changing moments in my time.  I sort of feel like this reflection itself was life-changing – I had no idea where it would go until I got there.  Now that I’ve recognized these moments in my life, I can re-learn from them.

What have you learned from the pivotal moments in your life?