There are dozens, probably hundreds, of websites and blogs out there talking about the Paleolithic, or Paleo, diet (the diet of choice for most CrossFitters). They talk to their audience about the benefits of the diet, what foods they should and shouldn’t eat, recipes for food and some even spend time explaining why other diets don’t work. Either way, there is a TON of really useful information out there! (If you want amazing recipes AND some comedy, check out my friend Juli’s blog, PaleOMG. She is the truth!)
There is SO much information out there that it can actually get really overwhelming. I am someone that once I get too overwhelmed with info, my eyes glaze over and I zone out. Most of the time, what I want is a more succinct message, delivered in language that is easy for me to internalize and actually process.
The video I’m posting below has been spreading around the CrossFit community like wildfire this week…. and rightfully so if you ask me. The video features Dr. Terry Wahls giving a speech at the TEDxIowaCity event entitled “Minding Your Mitochondria” that delivers so much incredible information on WHAT she thinks you should eat (listing specific foods), WHY she thinks you should eat them (giving specific biological impacts, both good AND bad, that certain foods have on our bodies), and other tidbits that shed light on why the diet works. There’s so much info and it’s so easy to understand!
Oh yeah, then there’s the side story about how she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2000, and her body began declining in health. She was confined to a zero-gravity chair whenever she would sit by November of 2007 and could only walk short distances with two canes. I won’t ruin the story for you, but let me just share a few of the milestones she reaches when she wrote her own dietary plan based on what she had leaned about the impact of food on the body:
November 2007 – Two canes to walk short distances, zero-gravity chair when seated
3 Months later – Walking between exam rooms
4 Month later – Could walk around the hospital without a cane
5 Months into her diet – Got onto her bike and pedaled around the block
9 Months into it – Did an 18-Mile bike ride
This is for someone who was practically bedridden due to her MS.
Do yourself a favor, watch this amazing video, please.
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