There are tons of diets out there. A recent trend in diets has been those that bring us back to our ancestral routes. Humans used to be hunter-gatherers. We used to live off what we could hunt and gather, meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts. The Paleo diet is a diet centered around eating, and living like we used to. This means, eating the foods we used to eat, and avoiding foods that have been added into the human diet relatively recently, such as dairy products, added sugar, processed food, soy products, and grains. Paleo Fitness by Darryl Edwards walks you through the Paleo Diet, and also includes exercises to include in your daily routine for optimal health and weight loss.

I received Paleo Fitness by Darryl Edwards to review:

Paleo Fitness by Darryl Edwards is a really straight forward guide to Paleo fitness. In addition to the diet, the book includes exercises, and even has a weekly plan you can follow, with different levels depending on your own fitness level. With diet and exercise, and focusing on being healthy rather than simply losing weight, you can achieve overall fitness.

Both the diet and exercises center around the idea that traditionally, humans ate what they could hunt and gather, and they got a lot more exercise daily than we do today. The lack of exercise and the introduction of new foods is what they believe have led to the obesity problem, as well as many other chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, celiac disease or gluten intolerance, digestive disorders, autoimmune diseases, the list goes on. Author Darryl Edwards explains, “anthropological evidence tells us that our Paleolithic forebears were lean, tall, and athletic and avoided the chronic diseases that plague us today. We can reintroduce key elements of our ancestors’ lifestyle- better food choice, appropriate physical activity, and stress management will mitigate the risks associated with the development of chronic diseases.”

The book makes it really easy to follow the Paleo diet. It lays out what foods to include, such as meats, eggs, fruits, non-starchy vegetables, and the food to avoid, such as dairy products, processed foods, soy products, and grains. It not only tells you to avoid the foods, but explains why. There is also a two week meal plan, and numerous recipes. The author also wants you to think about weight loss, and getting healthy differently. He suggests focusing on fat loss rather than weight loss, as weight loss can be discouraging, and lead people to give up quicker. He also suggests focusing on overall health rather than weight loss, as it leads to a more long-term healthy lifestyle.

The book also lays out the exercise plan really well, and includes lots of exercises with pictures to explain them. The vast majority of the exercises do not require any equipment, and are easy to do at home, even when you are limited on space.

Overall, I really like this book. It’s a great guide to starting a very healthy lifestyle. If you’re interested in the Paleo diet, or any similar diets, you should definitely check this book out.

Buy it: You can buy Paleo Fitness by Darryl Edwards at a bookstore near you, or at various online book retailers. You can find a list of sites which carry the book at the Ulysses Press Website.

Connect: You can connect with the author, Darryl Edwards, on his Blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Micaela