I Am The Caveman’s Man

I am your humble narrator, the Caveman’s Man himself, Sean Philips. I am a 34 year old man immersing himself in the modern caveman movement in hopes of leading a long, happy, healthy and downright sexy life.

I am not your average blogger and definitely not your average paleo/primal/crossfit/caveman blogger! I am a bit rough around the edges and by a bit, I mean a whole hell of a lot. I am quite likely to use too much profanity and more often than not make  off color remarks. After reading countless other blogs, all of which offered bounties of information and inspiration I realized that most of them had one thing in common……they were mostly clean cut and totally politically correct. Also, it seems as though often times they are a means to make a profit. Whether they are attempting to sell a book, ebook or coaching services, it seems most authors have to be careful not to scare off any potential clients. Mind you I see nothing wrong with them seeking profit for their work, in fact I have supported several authors by buying their products. That being said, I have to wonder how much of the PG-ness of it all is a sales pitch and I, myself, prefer real world mano a mano conversation like I’d have with friends over a (gluten free) beer . So I decided I’d write a blog in that casual style. Think Maxim magazine, written for and by a modern cavemen.

I have been a professional body piercer for the last 15 years, and coincidentally enough, a fat lazy bastard that prided myself on living as unhealthy of a lifestyle as possible for the same amount of years. Over the last decade, I have made a few attempts at improving my health. Ok, health is a bit of a lie. I tried to improve my appearance because I wanted better odds of getting laid, I never really gave my “health” any actual thought.

I was fairly successful on the Atkins diet. I stuck with it for two whole years and lost a ton of weight by doing so. However, I did it by eating crap, it just happened to be low carb crap. Double quarter pounders with what McDonald’s dares to call “cheese” minus the bun, highly processed trans fat laden low carb treats and as much dairy as I could shove down my throat were all par for the course. Eventually, I lost motivation and gained all the weight back (and then some). I dabbled in other diets and exercise regimes, but I always managed to find a “damn good reason” to not follow through with any of them.

Fast forward a few years, I get married and have my first child, my son, Sylas. He was my primary motivation for all of this. I want to to be able to pick him up and play with him, without my weakness, soreness or lack of endurance putting a quick end to our fun. Then, just a few weeks ago, my daughter Calianna was born, which reaffirmed my need to continue down this path. I want to be healthy enough to grow old and watch them grow up and have  families of their own. Also, I want to be a positive influence on them. Someone  that encourages my kids to lead a healthy, active life from a young age and to continue doing so throughout their time on this planet. Watching my son grow up so quickly, also made me come to terms with my own mortality. I always wanted to “get fit”, but it was too easy to put it off another day, another week………. another decade. Then the reality set in that if I wanted a promising future, not only for me but for my family as well,  I had to make changes immediately.

February 6th, 2011, Super Bowl Sunday: I ate as much absolute crap and consumed copious amounts of beer. I knew that day was the end of an era for me. On February 7th, I jumped back into Atkins. I knew it wasn’t the right path for me to follow indefinitely, but I also knew it worked (for  weight loss at least) and that it was something I could do. While doing the whole low carb junk food diet, I researched various other diets but I kept coming back to one, The Primal Blueprint, by Mark Sisson.

I read all I could about The Primal Blueprint and other interpretations of the Paleo Diet and it just made sense. Eat real food as nature intended. I based my personal interpretation on the diet primarily on Mark Sisson’s book and blog. I also learned (and continue to learn) a lot from Rob Wolf, author of the The Paleo Solution .  Primal, Paleo, paleolithic, ancestral health, caveman: all of these are terms used to describe a way of eating and a way of life based on our neanderthal ancestors. The basic gist is our genes have not significantly evolved since those prehistoric days and neither has our digestive system. Therefore the foods from the agricultural revolution forward and particularly all of these lab created faux-foods of modern times are not properly processed by our bodies.

So I jumped in with both feet. I immersed myself fully in this neo-neanderthal life style. I changed not only the way I eat, but the way I exercise, the way I play and my entire outlook on life. The results have been astounding. At my heaviest ever (drinking heavily and eating shit daily) I was in the 240′s. On February 6th 2011 the day before I started this journey, I weighed in at 229, clinically obese for my 5′ 9″ frame. At that point I was married with kids and had cut my drinking a lot, but by still eating total crap, I was still around 230 pounds! I now weighed around 175, and still have room to lose a few more pounds of fat, while gaining lean muscle mass, but the numbers don’t mean too much to me anymore. However, my appearance and above all general health and disposition mean a ton to me and those factors have improved significantly and should continue to improve significantly!

My skin looks healthier, and I look  younger than I did pre-primal. Also, for over 50 pounds of weight loss, I do not have too much loose skin ( I had significantly more when on my 2 year stint of Atkins). I feel healthier. I have more endurance. My formerly high blood pressure is mostly under control. I love my life. I look significantly better and hear it almost daily from my wife, friends and customers, which makes me feel even better. I’d almost go as far as to say it’s a damned miracle, but miracles  are results of divine intervention. This was a result of self intervention, will power, hard work and dedication.

If I had one word of advice to offer the world it would be to live life with passion. It is passion that drives us to better things and motivates us to go on. That being said, I thought I’d mention a few things I am passionate about outside of this paleolithic world of health and fitness.  A small sampling of things I am passionate about would be: my family, body modification, guns, Music of all genres, but mostly real country music, cars, Redskins and Clemson football, cycling,  and outdoor sports.

To sum up my view on life: Pursue your passion, live your life to the fullest and for fucks sake, stop bitching. Most problems you will ever encounter are you own goddamn fault, take responsibility and make change.