Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Fit, and Healthy at Any Age

241 Pages·2012·3.18 MB·English

by  Mikki Reilly

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discover the lean, ft, healthy
body that you were born to have.
Tired of feeling sluggish and bloated? Want to achieve a lean body and boundless energy, and to
prevent chronic illnesses, from diabetes to heart disease? look no further than your Paleolithic
your
hunter-gatherer ancestors. in Your Primal Body, ftness trainer Mikki Reilly shares her revolutionary
5-Step Primal Body Program, Paleo-based nutrition and workout plans that have helped men and
women of all ages and sizes become healthier, stronger, and more energetic. Your Primal Body not
only shows you the science—and good sense—behind the Paleo-based program, it gives you all the
tools you need to make the Paleo lifestyle work for you, including:
>>> The anti-infammation primal diet—with easy recipes and meal plans
primal
>>> An interval-based ftness program that can take less than 15 minutes a day
>>> exercises for strength-building and pain-free movement
>>> easy ways to turn your body into a highly efcient fat-burning machine
>>> Tips for keeping yourself looking and feeling younger
“Mikki Reilly is a world-class trainer. She gets “Mikki Reilly hits the nail on the head!
body
some of the most dramatic results i’ve ever She not only talks the talk and walks the walk,
seen with the approach she uses. Her book her plan will show you how to become
shows how you, too, can achieve your goals a leaner, ftter you.”
in this inspiring way.”
—PeTeR PaRk, Derek Fisher’s trainer and author of —DRS. MicHael anD MaRy Dan eaDeS,
Foundation: Redefne Your Core, Conquer Back Pain, and authors of Protein Power and The 6-Week Cure for the
Move with Confdence Middle-Aged Middle
Mikki Reilly, MFS, CSCS, is a certifed ftness trainer and former competitive
body-builder. She has served on the Balance Health Science Advisory Board
and as a member of Metrx’s “World’s Best Personal Trainer” advisory staf. She
lives in Santa Barbara.
The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Fit,
www.FitnessTransform.com
and Healthy at Any Age
ISBN: 978-0-7382-1637-9 $17.99 US / £11.99 / $21.00 CAN HEALTH | FITNESS
51799
DA CAPO PrES Mikki Reilly
Lifelong Books A Lifelong Original
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The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Mikki
your primal body Fit, and Healthy at Any Age Reilly
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YOUR PRIMAL BODY
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YOUR
PRIMAL
BODY
The Paleo Way to Living Lean,
Fit, and Healthy at Any Age
Mikki Reilly, MFS, CSCS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
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Copyright ©  by Mikki Reilly
Photographs by Linda Allen Blue
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For
information, address Da Capo Press,  Farnsworth Street, rd Floor, Boston,
MA .
Designed by Pauline Brown
Set in . point Warnock Pro Light by the Perseus Books Group
Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is
available from the Library of Congress.
First Da Capo Press edition 
ISBN: ----
Published by Da Capo Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
www.dacapopress.com
Note: Te information in this book is true and complete to the best of our
knowledge. Tis book is intended only as an informative guide for those wishing
to know more about health issues. In no way is this book intended to replace,
countermand, or conflict with the advice given to you by your own physician.
Te ultimate decision concerning care should be made between you and your
doctor. We strongly recommend you follow his or her advice. Information in
this book is general and is offered with no guarantees on the part of the authors
or Da Capo Press. Te authors and publisher disclaim all liability in connection
with the use of this book. Te names and identifying details of people associated
with events described in this book have been changed. Any similarity to actual
persons is coincidental.
Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the
U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more
information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the
Perseus Books Group,  Chestnut Street, Suite , Philadelphia, PA, ,
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Contents
Foreword by Dr. Art De Vany vii
Introduction ix
PART I: THE PRIMAL BODY: OUR GENETIC INHERITANCE
Chapter 1: Why Our Ancestors Were Right 3
Chapter 2: Losing Weight the Primal Way 17
Chapter 3: Live to Be 100 and Die Disease Free 35
PART II: THE 5-STEP PRIMAL BODY PROGRAM
Chapter 4: Step One—Eat the Anti-Inflammation Primal Diet 51
Chapter 5: Step Two—Supplement with the Super Six 69
Chapter 6: Step Three—Restore Your Muscles to Pain-Free Movement 87
Chapter 7: Step Four—Build Muscle with Primal Movement 105
Chapter 8: Step Five—Kick Up Your Metabolism to Burn Fat Faster 137
PART III: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: YOUR PRIMAL BODY
PLAN FOR LIFELONG HEALTH AND FITNESS
Chapter 9: Your Primal Body Eating Plan 153
Chapter 10: Your Primal Body Fitness Plan 185
Chapter 11: Your Primal Body for Life 197
Appendix A. Primal Resources 203
Appendix B. Bibliography and Recommended Books 205
Endnotes 207
Acknowledgments 211
Conversion Chart 213
About the Author 215
Index 217
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Foreword
Mikki Reilly has done something unique with what I and others have been
calling the evolutionary or Paleo approach to diet and fitness. She, in essence, has
written the “user’s manual” that takes the theory and applies it practically to exercise
and lifestyle—it’s the “how-to” for Paleo followers.
She’s been able to do this because of her excellent background and professional
credentials—she earned the highly esteemed certified strength and conditioning
specialist (CSCS) credential from the National Strength and Conditioning Asso-
ciation (NSCA) and the master of fitness sciences (MFS) from the International
Sports Sciences Association (ISSA). But even more because she is a fitness trainer
who has been in the trenches, so to speak, working with clients daily to see how
an evolutionary approach is altering lives. Her clients of all ages got stronger and
leaner by changing their diet and performing functional, high-intensity exercise,
and in this book you will read their stories. I’ve long asserted from personal expe-
rience that “chronic cardio” was not the way to go, and now we have a blueprint for
the kind of exercise that takes the best advantage of our natural gene expression—
laid out and made simple for everyday use.
When I first began writing about the Paleo approach back in , few people
were interested. But that has changed. Following the diet and lifestyle of our earliest
ancestors, who were around for over  million years and lived fitter, healthier lives
in many ways than we do today, is appealing to more and more people. Mikki has
made it all the more accessible to do, and just in time, as now women are showing
interest, and she is a unique model for how a woman can embrace the Paleo way.
In fact, I might go so far as to call her the “female face of Paleo,” inspiring other
women, as well as everyone, to adopt a more natural, healthy way of life that puts
an end to fads and fashion in fitness.
A simple fact today’s scientists have discovered is that we humans evolved as
hunter-gathers, moving and eating in specific ways that shaped us genetically and
had us survive. Not only survive, but thrive! Te latest evidence shows that our
ancestors lived out their days relatively disease free and with bodies that equaled
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FOREWORD
those of our modern-day Olympic athletes. Your Primal Body shows us how
you can do what they did, and combined with our modern environment, thrive
even better.
Arthur De Vany, PhD
Author, Te New Evolution Diet: What Our Paleolithic
Ancestors Can Teach Us About Weight Loss, Fitness, and Aging
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Introduction
The book you hold in your hands, Your Primal Body: Te Paleo Way to Living
Lean, Fit, and Healthy at Any Age, is a doorway to the total transformation of your
body, your health, and your life. It’s about fitness, but unlike most fitness books
today, this book offers more than directions and a routine for changing your body.
It gives you a revolutionary new context for weight loss, pain-free movement,
building muscle, heart health, and longevity—all based on scientific information
about humans that are . million years old.
Te program you will read about in this book is unique in one main way: It’s
based on your DNA. Because the human genome has not changed in the last forty
thousand years, you want to mimic what the earliest humans did that worked. Teir
DNA was shaped over . million years since they came down from the trees to
begin a lifestyle of hunting and gathering. Te environment they encountered was
one that built strong muscles and lean bodies, so they could survive the harsh con-
ditions that prevailed for eons. When you exercise and eat according to the lifestyles
of the earliest humans, you gain a host of advantages that were honed over mil-
lennia to keep you in top condition.
My plan also includes a fitness program based on doing what your DNA has
programmed your body to do. Te old model, still used in most gyms and programs
today, requires endless hours of cardio, boring low-fat diets, and machine-dependent
strength training. Te low-fat, aerobic approach has been around for decades, ever
since Kenneth Cooper wrote Aerobics in the late ’s and Jane Fonda put millions
of women on the aerobic dance floor in the ’s. But now, there’s a new trend in
town. My -Step Primal Body Program, the backbone of this book, will turn your
world upside down and change forever how you think about fitness. Dr. Cooper;
move over; Jane Fonda, move over; and yes, Jillian Michaels, move over, too. Te
biggest losers are about to become the biggest winners, and working out just got
a whole lot more fun.
The -Step Primal Body Program shows you how to be congruent with your
DNA and gives you a step-by-step program to get you in alignment with the
way your genes were designed to be expressed. It is based on my twenty years
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