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It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. In fact, I have a contest going right now. So if you have a story to share, no matter how big or how small, you’ll be in the running to win a big prize. Read more here.

realifestories in line The version of me on the left side of this picture taught 12-16 group fitness classes per week, fueled on 6-7 daily meals made of lean protein, steamed vegetables, and healthy whole grains. I did everything right and yet found myself staring down the barrel of Type 2 diabetes.

When I saw this picture, taken by my sister while on vacation to Cuba in 2009, I didn’t even recognize myself. The abdominal weight had accumulated so quickly, I didn’t have a chance to notice it. And how does a girl like me get a belly like that anyway? The math didn’t add up: my calorie balance had been squarely and obsessively in check since my mid-teens.

Even more troubling than the weight gain was my completely unmanageable energy levels. I couldn’t get through a fitness class unless I drank orange juice the entire time. Every workout needed to be book-ended by precisely-timed carbohydrate feeds, or I’d sink into a nap that would occupy the rest of my day. My high-stress day job as an advertising Account Manager was suffering because I couldn’t make it through a meeting—an afternoon!—without nodding off or needing a nap in the car. Speaking of car naps, anytime I had to drive anywhere it became a game of chicken: will I manage to stay awake behind the wheel this time?

Kudos to my Western doctor for thinking somewhat outside of the box and declaring me “pre-diabetic.” It got my wheels turning on how everything we’d been taught to believe about exercise and diet—everything I’d ever preached in my 20+ years in the fitness industry—may not have been as cut and dried as we’d believed. Furthermore, the stress of my professional day job, she suggested, may have contributed to my body’s resistance to insulin. What a revelation! Health struggles and weight gain relating to lifestyle factors, and not simply as a result of a mismatch of calories in versus calories out.

By the way, I rejected that diagnosis. I immediately set out to reverse what the doctor declared was an inevitable descent into full-blown diabetes. Like most of us, the thirst for understanding HOW this could have happened to someone like me doing absolutely everything right lead me to Google. And Google brought me to Mark’s Daily Apple, and the Primal Blueprint book. I devoured every word of the book, the blog, the forum. It all made so much sense.

Within weeks of implementing the Primal Laws, everything in my life changed. The weight effortlessly began to vanish. My energy surged, and it has not stopped since I started that day seven years ago. My relationship with food can only be described as “effortless”—a revelation for a former-athlete-turned-fitness-professional like myself who’d battled disordered eating and body image issues literally forever.

The transformation was so miraculous that I couldn’t help but be evangelical about it. I told everyone I encountered that they needed to go Primal right this very minute. I convinced a few, but I wanted more reach.

I wanted a nutrition credential to help lend credibility to my impassioned rants, and so that I could build a legitimate business delivering the wisdom of Primal. I just couldn’t bring myself to register for a four-year degree in Dietetics, so instead I found a diploma program that offered more nutrition flexibility and wasn’t tethered to Canada’s Food Guide (our version of the Food Pyramid). In 2014, I graduated as a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and got to work quitting my day job and spreading the message of unconventional dietary wisdom far and wide through my nutrition consulting and health coaching business, eat.simple.

The second the Primal Blueprint Expert Certification came into existence, you’d better believe I threw my credit card at it immediately. I was one of the early adopters of the the program, even though I didn’t open the portal or start reading the first module until a full calendar year after paying for it.

I quickly discovered that the piece that was missing from my nutrition consulting business was any hot clue how to coach humans through the process of large-scale lifestyle change. So when I got the email that the Primal Blueprint Expert Certification had evolved and grown to include a greater emphasis on coaching, and was being rebranded the Primal Health Coach certification, that’s when I logged in for the first time. I struggled through the program spectacularly, despite having a nutrition credential and dozens of fitness certifications under my belt. It challenged me, and I loved and respected every grueling moment of those mind-bending multiple choice quizzes. I could feel that I was growing; the coaching pieces built into the program, which had been lacking in every single other course or certification I’ve ever taken, were going to change the game for eat.simple.

The Primal Health Coach program is what took my business from a wobbly, uncertain start-up, to a growing and proven mini-empire that actually helps people enact massive lifestyle change in an accessible way. I no longer have the worry looming over my head “Will I be good at this, or will I have to admit defeat and return to the advertising rat race?” I’m getting set to hire eat.simple’s first employee to help me manage the workload of a client roster that just continues to grow. The clients are out there. They want your help. Go get them!

The ultimate lightning strike in this feel-good story happened in 2016 when the Primal Health Coach team announced it was growing, too, and put out a call for resumes for folks with fitness, nutrition, and business backgrounds to come and work with the Primal team. I was hired as the Client Care Lead, supporting students and graduates through the Primal Health Coach program and afterward, as they set out to build their businesses. That I now get to call Mark Sisson my boss? “Dream come true” does not even begin to cover it, my friends. I know you know.

Back to that before and after photo. The picture on the right was taken in winter of 2016, on yet another tropical winter vacation, this time to Belize (it’s how we get through those long, cold, dark, Canadian winters). Once again I was taken aback: “Is that me?” I had to ask. Seven years later and my relationship with food, fitness, my body, and my metabolic function has become so effortless that I forget to notice how good it looks. But there’s no denying how good it feels. Not one day goes by when I don’t celebrate my own good health and that of the over 200 clients I’ve coached toward Primal living in the last three years.

I feel remarkably blessed that I get to live my authentic truth in life and in work, every darn day. Primal has changed my life, just as I know it can change yours.

erin-before-and-after-3

Does the impact of the Primal Blueprint in your life move you to consider coaching others to share the promise of health and vitality? Visit the Primal Health Coach website to learn more about the program, and be sure to check out our free information session.

The post My Transformation Was So Miraculous I Went on to Coach 200 Others appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Maybe you’ve stayed at a hotel that gave you a “free continental breakfast.” If you had visions of huge pancakes and fluffy egg dishes, you would’ve been disappointed when presented with your options: a small bowl of fruit, a tiny banana-nut muffin, and a mug of coffee.

To some, this might seem downright skimpy, especially if you’re used to big, made-to-order options for your first meal of the day. To others, it might be just the right amount of food as they embark on their day.

Wherever you land on the divide, let’s take a closer look at this popular option for travelers here in America and abroad, and see how this free meal came into fashion.

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(Image credit: @lletycynin)

Paging all muggles: You can now get a taste of the wizard world in South Wales. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of J.K. Rowling’s first book in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, a B&B called Llety Cynin launched Wizard’s Tea twice a week.

Yes, there will be hot butterbeer.

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Sometimes (often!) the technique behind a recipe is more important than the precise ingredients. Stews fall squarely into this category, meaning you can take a few key principles and make a hearty meal without cracking a book or fussing with your phone.

Just learn one important ratio by heart and meaty stew will be yours.

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From Apartment Therapy → Before & After: An Unbelievably Bold Blue Kitchen Gets a Modern Makeover

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I love breakfast food. Sweet muffins, crispy waffles, fluffy pancakes, piping-hot scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and buttery English muffins are some of my most craved meals. Growing up, my family would sit around the table — or, if we were really lucky, the Friendly’s in town — for the aptly titled Special Breakfast on Sunday mornings. It felt like stolen time. The most delicious foods, a leisurely pace, no worries about the bedtimes and homework that cluttered our nightly dinner routine. It just felt … well, special.

But on the other six, busier mornings? I’d scarf down a bowl of cereal or grab a banana and a yogurt without thinking, and rush off to school. It wasn’t magical, but at least it was something.

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win6The Prize:

A year’s supply of Primal Fuel. That’s 12 months of my ultimate, low-carb, high-fat, high-protein shake mix delivered right to your door! Primal Fuel serves as the perfect post-workout treat or meal replacement; curbing hunger with healthy fats, helping build and maintain muscle mass with 20 grams of whey-protein isolate; and improving digestion and immunity with the addition of prebiotics.

Go with Vanilla Coconut Creme or Chocolate Coconut…or alternate between the two. Winner’s choice!

The Contest:

We’re just a few days into the 21-Day Challenge, but I know many of you have seen amazing results going Primal leading up to the Challenge. Weight lost, muscle built, complexions cleared, even meds kicked. Now’s the time to share it! This means you have the opportunity to show the rest of the community who you are and what you’ve accomplished. In the process you’ll inspire thousands of people to take control of their health just as you have. I don’t know about you, but I get a kick out of that.

So for this contest I want to hear your story. Write it up and include a photo. Including both pre-Primal and post-Primal pics is even better, but not required. Don’t worry if you’re not a chiseled Adonis. This isn’t a “who’s the most ripped” competition. Whether you’ve lost 100 pounds over two years of Primal living or you’ve simply managed to kick that Diet Coke habit, just tell me what going Primal has done for you. I’m looking for interesting and personal tales. Details about your health history, how you found MDA and the Primal Blueprint, what has worked and what hasn’t, what differences you’ve seen in how you look and feel, and anything else you think readers might be able to learn from and you’re open to sharing are welcome. It doesn’t have to be a thousand word diatribe, but hopefully more than a couple paragraphs. Feel free to be creative with your story format, too. Remember, good stories usually have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and honesty is king.

I’m sure many of you have thought about sending your story in, but just haven’t gotten around to it. There is no better time than now. I’ll be featuring reader stories during the 21-Day Challenge and beyond, so get yours in soon!

Email me your story along with any pictures. Please use the subject heading “My Primal Story.” Otherwise, there’s a good chance I may completely miss your submission.

Examples:

One of the most memorable stories published on MDA: The Unconquerable Dave. If you haven’t read it, do it now. You won’t regret it. YAWP!

View other Success Stories here for ideas on how to write your own story.

Eligibility:

Anyone in the world can enter.

Additionally, everyone who has submitted a Success Story to Mark’s Daily Apple since the last year’s Challenge is automatically entered to win, so don’t worry if you emailed me just a few days ago. You’re entered!

The Deadline:

January 22, midnight PDT.

How the Winner Will Be Determined:

An executive decision will be made to determine which stories and accompanying photos get published on MDA. The winner of the prize package above will be chosen at random from those that are submitted.

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The post Contest: Share Your Success Story appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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When the temperature drops in January, what we really want is food that fills us up and nourishes at the same time. So start your day with a hearty smoothie, but finish it with a wholesome stew. This is one of a series of stews designed to make you feel good in every possible way. Brimming with veggies and spices, each of these wholesome stews will support and reward your best New Year’s intentions.

Imagine a bowl of food that tastes as fresh as a stir-fry, reminds you of your favorite dumplings, and has the aromatic broth of a good noodle bowl, all in the form of a delicious and nuanced stew.

The ingredient list might look long, but much of it is Asian ingredients that keep well for months, meaning you can have them on hand to use in this and other recipes. A well-stocked pantry is one of the smartest strategies for time-saving recipes and cooking on the fly.

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From Apartment Therapy → 9 Ways to Organize a Kitchen Without Many (or Any!) Cabinets

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Another physical day, pushing yourself on some maxes.

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