What is Origins Living: The best approach to daily living
What is Origins Living?
Origins Living is the approach I’ve created to living the healthiest life you possibly can in an effort to increasing your quality of live everyday, in a realistic and practical approach that is sustainable. Over the past decade, I’ve experimented with all sorts of diets (high- or low-carb, high- or low-fat, mainly fruits and veg, mainly carnivore, and keto), and all sorts of movement (running, hiking, strength training, sports, and stretching). I’ve built Origins Living on the pillars that utilize effective, practical, and simple components from my experimentation. If it isn’t easy(ish) to stick to and it doesn’t noticeably make me look or feel better, it didn’t make the cut for Origins Living.
The pattern I picked up on effective health and fitness advice I sought really came from ancestral ways of eating, moving, and living from the likes of those in the carnivore community — think Dr. Paul Saladino and Dr. Shawn Baker, who are popular advocates for the movement or adjacent ways of eating and living. After actually diving in to scientific studies AND reviewing anecdotal evidence, I was finding that ancestral ways of living (mainly when it comes to nutrition) proved to be the most effective to put any or all health concerns into remission — and that’s a bold claim to make.
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. We aren’t meant to sit for 18 hours a day, hunched over and attached to screens, eating over-processed and highly refined foods. That’s incongruent with how are ancestors lived for over 100,000 years, our bodies aren’t adapted to this life that’s industrialization in the last 100 years, and our metabolic health is suffering because of this incongruence.
One thing I found that was constantly lacking in the carnivore and ancestral eating communities was an all encompassing and modernized version of this lifestyle. When I say all-encompassing, I had unanswered questions when it came to movement, adjusting my “behind the desk lifestyle,” addressing my uniquely individual health concerns, and integrating this all into my social and daily life. When I say modernized version, I mean taking all of the lessons learned from ancestral living that these advocates I looked up to espoused, but modifies aspects to make adhering to this new way of living sustainable, enjoyable, and applicable for modern day.
With all of this in mind, I decided to fill in those gaps follow my health and fitness passion and created Origins Living:
Origins = Ancestral lessons
Living = Modernized, everyday application
The Approach to Nutrition
It’s not surprise most of westernized countries are sick with the plethora of processed options we consume daily. We are constantly overfed and undernourished, lacking in the vitamins and minerals are body is craving to balance our hormones and keep the body working at optimal performance. It’s probably safe to say we, and you, are metabolically unhealthy
Nutrition can also be the hardest part of one’s health and fitness journey to conquer — it was for me. The sugar and carb addiction is all too real, and kicking the bad habit of convenient and ultra-palatable food is often why people give up.
That’s why I love this approach to health, it focuses on meeting all of the macronutrients and micronutrients your body needs to curb cravings. With an emphasis on protein, specifically red meat, you’re getting the vitamins and minerals your body absorbs and processes which acts as “ an instruction guide” for your hormones to perform their roles for your body. An increased in protein also feeds your muscles and allows you to retain lean muscle mass. This takes the focus away from the misinformation that we need to consume vegetables in order do be health. Shocker — we don’t. There’s nothing in vegetables that red meat and fruit won’t give you, and the micronutrient profile of red meat is not only superior having more of a micronutrient, but more bioavailable (your body absorbs it better).
Two things that make the Origins Living diet approach different to other animal-based and carnivore-adjacent diets is it’s expansion with its cyclical dieting and use of coconut flour. In order to become metabolically healthy, boiling down to an elimination diet of carnivore only gets you back to metabolic health by removing insulin sensitivity and removing inflammation from your body — this is where you see the most changes in any acute or chronic health condition. Incorporating a fasting protocol is something the Origins Living approach does for a world of good for your gut health and meal satiety. Sticking to a carnivore diet with a fasting component can be really hard though, so an Origins Living approach starts with processed carb replacements (coconut flour) that do less damage, help you overcome cravings, and give you an alternative to rely on long-term.
Take-home tips:
STOP putting an emphasis on vegetables that are trying to defend themselves with chemicals in order to not be eaten — focus on red meat.
Curb your sweet tooth some fruit and honey.
STOP constantly snacking
Replace the processed grain flours with some coconut (NOT almond) flour if you are looking to re-create bread, tortillas, cookies, muffins, and so on.
Further reading: Ancestral eating with Origins Living & Fasting with Origins Living
The Approach to Movement
After addressing the priority of nutrition concerns, you need to turn your attention to incorporating daily movement into your lifestyle. While this may not be as much of a new concept compared to an Origins Living diet, there is more to moving everyday to keep or get your body back to its prime well beyond youthful years.
While this approach ensure the core components of a strength routine (or building up to this) and incorporating cardio based on your capabilities is expected, the way these are built are different than a typical “hit the gym” and “hit the treadmill” routine.
I realized it’s much easier to tackle fitness throughout the day and place an emphasis on mobility, small bursts of movement, and a fitness routine that focuses on building and retaining lean muscle mass for adherence and longevity. Again, the goal is to find a fitness “routine” you can not only stick to, but one that is strategic enough to take care of your health during your 30s, 40s, 50s, and well beyond.
An Origins Living approach focuses on strength training up to 3x-4x per week as opposed to workouts everyday that last no longer than 30 minutes. While there are of course exceptions to this rule for those who want to push their physique to its limit, Origins Living puts an emphasis on a routine for everyday living. This allows for optimal recovery with noticeable muscle improvement.
Lots of strength programs don’t incorporate a stretching routine to a degree that specifically addresses your individual joint and range of motion challenges. Instead of a few static stretches prior to your workout, an Origins Living exercise regimen targets your problem areas so you remove and movement restrictions your currently experience with a proper mobility routine. Joint and muscle health is what keeps you away from the cane in your old age.
Lastly, utilizing a form of cardio that you enjoy and you can stick to, alongside walking and modifications to your workplace situation (think standing desk for office jobs or utilizing proper lifting techniques in a trades job) rounds out your modern movement routine.
Take-home tips:
The easiest impact you can make is by scheduling walks throughout your day to hit your daily steps goal. Walks blunt appetite and are easy on the joints.
Create a strength routine that focuses on low reps and compound lifts (exercises that targets multiple body parts like a squat, deadlift, bench press) to save on time while building strength.
Work with a physiotherapist or YouTubing a stretching routine for the health of your muscles and joints is the key to solving your aching joints, limited range of motion, and age-related movement restrictions.
Further reading: Modern movement with Origins Living
The Approach to Biohacking
Biohacking is that last component of Origins Living, and the most sentimental pillar of this approach to living for me. We are all individuals that suffer from a mental or physical ailment that is uniquely ours.
I struggled with acne for 10 years, the driving factor of always pushing to learn and understand more about my biology as doctors and experts weren’t providing me with the solutions I needed to cure or keep my acne at bay. This struggle led me to learning all about fasting, strength training, animal-based and ancestral eating to keep my acne at bay. I learnt the foods that I put into my body have a direct affect on how clear my skin is including the specific supplements I needed to take to balance my hormones, and I gained all of the confidence in the world after my acne went away. I also learned that when I “fall off the wagon” my acne returns with a vengeance and I feel debilitated again.
Every individual has something that they’d like to improve, mental or physically, and I believe that equipping individuals with the information needed to help resolve personal issues is truly the cherry on top of a top-tier health and fitness regimen and lifestyle.
Take-home tips:
Instead of trying to treat the symptoms of your unique ailment, get a grasp on the root cause of your issue.
Review advice and information from both conventional and alternative sources of medicine to get more than one opinion. Always get multiple opinions for different sources.
Further reading: Brain and body biohacking with Origins Living
Please note - no information in this article is meant to be medical advice, this is simply my opinion and my approach to living that I believe others should explore to see what’s right for them.
Setting Realistic Goals & Habits
Getting excited about a new health and fitness regimen to add to your lifestyle is all fine and dandy, but it’s all for nothing if you can’t stick with it. There are so many avenues Origins Living can take you down, but it’s important that setting realistic habits to achieve your goals is your main priority.
Having a plan is place is what you are going to do to achieve your goals, but actualizing this plan into tangible, simple habits is going to get you there. Forming the perspective that your habits are going to get you to your goals, no matter how lofty they are, and make you enjoy and thrive in your day to day life is a perspective instilled with Origins Living.
I’m don’t set goals, habits, or a journey for myself that I know I won’t stick to or I can’t work towards in manageable steps. My goals also have to align with my daily living as my life isn’t just a set of goals but it’s also the little things that make up every day.
Building an Origins Living regimen you can stick to enhances your quality of life AND your longevity, and that’s the best way to live.