Tina’s experience:
This past weekend my sister Corina and I attended the Paleo Solution seminar in Toronto. The speaker was Robb Wolf and it was well worth the trip across Canada to meet him and hear him speak about nutrition.
Robb told about how he grew up with parents that were always suffering from a multitude of ailments and how he knew, even at a young age, that there had to be a reason why they were always sick and a way to live a better life.
Determined not to become like his parents, he choose a vegan lifestyle. After a period of time,he too,was suffering from serious health conditions and was on the verge of having to have some of his bowel resected. He was only in his twenties and his doctors told him that his “healthy” vegan diet,which was heavy in whole grains, legumes, soy and vegetables, was the only thing keeping him alive.
One day while sitting there sick and depressed, a thought came to him. He wondered what people ate before agriculture. He googled it and came upon paleolithic nutrition and Dr. Loren Cordain. That night, Robb made a meal of grass fed beef ribs and salad and went to bed with no pain or bloating and had the best night of sleep in years.
From then he spent all his time doing research and learning everything he could about how food affects humans. Being a biochemist, he is an extremely intelligent guy and really knows how the human body works.
The seminar was very enjoyable and although quite “sciencey” in parts, it confirmed that this guy really knows his stuff. He encouraged everyone to be critical of things, to ask questions and to not turn “being paleo” into a religion. His goal is to get the correct information to as many people as possible to help save lives and allow people to reclaim their health.
With the exception of infectious diseases, all other illness is a result of diet. People need to eat what we have evolved to eat, when we don’t, the result is poor health. Check out robbwolf.com for tons of information or read his book “The Paleo Solution”. It could save your life.
Corina’s Robb Wolf Seminar rundown:
Tina and I traveled to Toronto this past weekend to attend Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solution seminar. We have been Robb Wolf fans since we read his book and this was a great opportunity to enhance our education on the topic of nutrition in order to help ourselves, and those in our gym.
We arrived a bit early and Robb was at the front of the room fiddling around and getting set up. He chatted with us for a few minutes until I got my groupie on and asked him to autograph my copy of his book. He was very friendly and accommodating and came right over and literally scrawled out an inscription and his signature. He even writes like a cave man!
The seminar itself was a a range of what he covered in his book but with a little more detailed and ‘sciency‘ in some places. One of the things he discussed at length and that had an impact on both of us was how EVERY illness (other than infectious disease) that exists begins in the gut and is due to gut irritation caused by the consumption of grains/legumes/dairy. From schizophrenia to multiple sclerosis to diabetes to arthritis, it can all be traced back to the gut.
Another thing that he really emphasized is the importance in getting 10 hours of sleep. No, not because it just feels good to get that much sleep, but because there is major cellular repair and recovery that occurs when we are catching our Z’s and it is important to give our bodies that time to heal. Easier said than done, yes, but I think we could all make the effort to shut off the tube an hour or more earlier and crawl into our bed in our pitch black room (Robb also emphasized the importance of that as well. No alarm clock lights, no little red light from the fire alarm, no light whatsoever) and get all the sleep we can.
Robb is very passionate about what he is talking about as he moves through his material with ease and great enthusiasm. One of the most passionate moments came when a girl asked a question and prefaced it with: “I am trying to convince…” He stopped her in her tracks and said: “Do not try to convince anyone!” The room got pin drop quiet as his passion and conviction sent waves through the bodies of everyone in the room. He told everyone to not waste one more minute of trying to convince people or argue with them about something they don’t really know anything about. He said: “…for every person you are wasting your time trying to convince, there are 1000 people behind them who want your help and will benefit greatly from it…” He said he, at 39 years old, worries that if he dies at 90 he won’t have reached enough people and helped enough people. It was my personal favorite moment of the seminar. Well, that and the meals Tina and I ate at the Keg both nights…
Not only is this guy as smart as anyone I have ever met, but he is doing it for the right reasons. His information on his website is free, his podcasts are free, and his goal is to reach as many people as he possibly can and absolutely loves doing what he is doing. If you don’t really know who Robb Wolf is or want to learn more about the science behind why it is important to be grain, legume and dairy free check out his free podcasts on iTunes or go to his website and read his FAQ’s. His book is advertised on our website and is well worth the read.
After the seminar was over he wanted to get a group photo of everyone at the seminar. I sidled up right next to him and stood right next to him like a total creep. Immediately that picture was taken I asked him if he would mind posing for a picture with Tina and I. Again, he was very gracious and posed for the photo that you see above. He stated that he would hang around for an hour for a Q&A session so Tina and I went back into the room and waited. We realized that he was getting bombarded where we took the photo so like the true groupies that we were, we headed back out to where he was and just kind of lingered around listening to him answer people’s many questions. We lurked around until the very end, but it was worth it. He is so smart and interesting to listen to. He always answers in a meaningful way and has time for people. What he doesn’t have time for are the ‘this is hard’ type of whining that sometimes accompanies this kind of change in lifestyle. This just reinforced why I think this biochemist is a rockstar, he takes no crap for telling people to not eat crap. Gotta love him!
Sounds like you had a blast – you were able to not only gain a vast amount of knowledge but get your ‘creep’ on as well ! hehehe
Sounds like a Man on a Mission:) I am slowly learning more about his philosphy, but the only way I am going to get close to 10 hours of sleep is if I get rid of the kids:) If he is a family man maybe he could give some pointers on getting teenagers to bed!!
Now I need to read the book. It is hard to wrap my head around but there seems to be a lot of common sense involved so……..definitely time to get on board!!!!!
Yes, I freaked out for awhile at the thought of giving up bread too, but once you establish a new routine, it is really easy. Ask us anything you like, and if you want to get jump started, we have a great 30 Day Challenge package that you can use to get started.