I made two changes to my lifestyle about a year and a half ago. In some ways they're not major, in others they are life-changing. The first was starting (and continuing) the Paleo Diet and the second was slowly converting to minimalist shoes. They don't sound so important, do they? He started a new diet and bought some new shoes. While on the surface these two changes seem minor, they are the impetus of the philosophy I've started to think of as "getting back to The Basics."
My roommates got this crazy idea in the spring of 2011 that the Paleo Diet would help them look, feel, and perform better. We cook and eat together, so I read the book The Paleo Diet, by Robb Wolf (one of many on the subject). This is not a temporary diet, as the word is mostly used today, but a lifestyle change. The basic idea of the Paleo movement is that the introduction of agriculture changed the diet of most humans from that which we're adapted to a diet that is not as nutritious for us. Gluten, a protein in wheat, barley, and some other grains, is a major contributor. It interacts with the wall of the small intestine, causing inflammation and allowing molecules that shouldn't pass into the bloodstream to do so. Similar proteins are present in all bean, legume, and cereal crops. Additionally, predominance of cereal crops and beans in our diet causes us to consume far more carbohydrates which are easily broken down into simple sugars and mess with our blood sugar regulations system ( insulin and glucagon and a bunch of other stuff) and our blood cholesterol. There are other finer points, like types of fats we should be eating and exercise, but you get the idea.
Did it work? I would say yes. I started out the Paleo Diet at 195 pounds. After the first week, I had lost 10 lbs. Over the rest of the first month I lost 10 more pounds. Now I stay somewhere in between 170 and 175 lbs. So, I look better. Aside from being a bit lighter and my clothing fitting better, I don't really feel any different. My cholesterol has always been low. Some people say their stomachs/GI tract feel better, but I haven't noticed anything like that. My roommate that had high cholesterol (despite eating a fairly low-fat diet and getting a reasonable amount of exercise) reduced his cholesterol from dangerous to normal. All three of us lost 20 lbs or more. Newsflash: we never starved, we just changed the way we ate. No grains (that's the hard part. NONE.), no dairy, no beans, no PROCESSED FOOD. Eat more vegetables, fruits, and (surprise!) meat! Mmmmm.... meat. We got back to the basics of food. We freed ourselves (kind of) from the modern food production machine and the diet paradigm everyone thought was best for you.
The second change I've done on my own. I don't know how I got it into my head, but at about the same time as the Paleo diet adventure I thought it would be a good idea to join the minimalist shoe/barefoot running movement. I had talked about it with my roommates enough that they bought me a pair of Vibram FiveFingers for my birthday in 2011. The emphasis of the minimalist shoe movement is that modern shoes (running and otherwise) are constraining, deforming, and weakening our feet. Our feet were made to support our bodies on all surfaces and at all (human) speeds; we just had to LET them. So I did. I eased into it over the course of a month or so in the springtime (my normal easing into running after winter time anyhow). Once I got over the calf and foot muscle soreness (you use them A LOT more when running "barefoot") I was hooked and on my way. With only a 4-6mm layer of rubber separating my feet from the ground, I could FEEL where I was going. I hit the ground softer while enjoying being able to feel the ground.
A year and a half later, I'm still running only with minimalist shoes. I've not injured myself nor do I feel like my joints are taking more of a pounding. I've not had shin splints once since converting. I'm running the way people were designed to run. I don't have to worry about my shoes being "worn out" (besides holes) because MY FEET do the cushioning and shock absorbing. Once again, I was getting back to the basics of running, breaking from a modern fad that our feet are weak and need to be supported and pampered if they are to last a lifetime. Now I'm even in the process of replacing my casual and dress shoes with appropriate minimalist shoes. Strong feet for life!
To bring it all home, these two fairly minor changes in my life made me think about what else are we over-thinking. After a bit of pondering, I decided that almost all of the beliefs I had cultivated over the last several years come down to the same premise: get back to basics. Liberty says each man controls his own destiny and doesn't require a complex, expensive, unsustainable governmental structure to maintain. Hard currency (or at least a free market in money) and full-reserve banking don't require some overarching authority to control the amount of money in existence in hopes that authority knows or can determine the right answer. There are other specific points that I've been reading and thinking about, but they all boil down to freedom. And there's freedom in simplicity. There's bondage in over-complicating life, because then you must (or are often compelled to) turn over that part of your life to "the experts."
Now that I've laid out for you how I got here, next time I'll get more in depth on how I believe there's freedom in simplicity.
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