Mike Willesee’s Paleo Journey

I woke up this morning, flicked off my alarm and opened up social media. I was immediately reminded why I generally don’t start off my day like this because I was appalled. Gob smacked. Actually disgusted. At humans and how cruel we can truly be. Particularly on social media… what is that? People seem to have alternate personalities, one that they reserve for face to face contact and the other for slandering on social media. The amount of complete uproar and the degree of slandering that has come as a result of Mike Willesee’s absolutely tremendous health transformation is just pitiful. This is how I see things, in really simple terms, without adding any ambiguities to the situation:

1.Mike’s health was on a downward spiral. He admitted this, his Doctors admitted this, his family were aware of it.
2. Mike agreed to go paleo for 10 weeks to see if his health benefited from the dietary and lifestyle change.
3. Low and behold, his health has improved and its reflected in the blood results, his waistline and the scales. Furthermore, he feels energetic and has taken responsibility for making better food choices.

If I ran into Mike Willesee in a coffee shop, I’d like to say to him: “Well done Mike. Seriously, well done. You’ve not taken the easy road. Making nutritional and lifestyle changes requires commitment. But you’ve done it. Thank you for being an example to the world. For not rolling over and simply accepting that way of being or blaming your age or opting for more drugs or more surgeries. Thanks for taking a stand and showing people that it’s not a joke anymore. We can not expect to shovel garbage into our own bodies day in and day out and still expect them to perform. You join a minority group (some of them are my clients and I have been lucky enough to help in the journey) who are accepting that the status quo simply is not working and you have been willing to do something ‘different’ something ‘real’ for a different result.”

I feel bad for him. I hope he and Pete Evans both have really thick skin. We should be celebrating alongside him and yet people are criticising and bringing Mike and his team down. And if this is about paleo then let’s clear up a few things right here and right now:

1. Paleo is a real food lifestyle. With the added benefit of incorporating movement, down time and other stress reduction techniques. There are many variations of it in a sense, Pete Evan’s program is his own version and many people are benefiting from this particular template.
2. It’s not for everyone. However, real food, in my opinion is. And if you are on board with keeping it fairly real, I hate to break it to you, but you are probably not that far off paleo anyway.
3. There is fibre in fruits and vegetables and lots of it. Fibre does not need to come from highly processed cereals or even bread. This argument is getting a little tiring. We have an overconsumption issue, in general where starchy carbohydrates are concerned.
4. Paleo is ummm not about eating lots of meat. For those who are still at this stage, read ‘The Primal Blueprint’ by Mark Sisson or ‘The Paleo Diet’ by Loren Cordain (PhD.) Then, you can comment on a topic you understand.
5. Similarly, calcium is found in plenty of other foods, not just conventional dairy. Cheap and highly industrialised dairy products is about as far from real as you can get. Buy the good stuff or forget it. Avoid long life cardboard dairy products, $1 per litre milk and pre grated cheese. I really can’t believe we are concerned about the dairy issue… and yet its fine for us to accept the copious amounts of sugar, trans fats and take away products we consume as a nation day in day out….augh. This is not ok.

“For the first time in my life, I’ve stopped to think about the food I’m eating.” Mike Willesee 

I normally roll over this stuff. And I certainly do not post hate messages on other peoples Facebook pages or websites. Despite being the victim of some interesting social media tactics by others in this industry over the last few weeks, I will continue to keep things positive. I will not stoop to that level because I have a professional respect for others, their learnings and their approach. But I do have a commitment to my clients and on a larger level, to the world. And some of us are really keen to simply get the message out there that we have to start paying attention to food. I mean actual food. Not the stuff that passes as food but really isn’t. We pay more attention to the fuel we put into our cars then what passes between our lips and it really has to change. People, quite simply are not well. More drugs, more surgery, less fat in the diet… not solutions. Conventional medicine and the use of pharmaceutical drugs offers amazing possibilities and it is lifesaving where necessary. But how about we all take a little bit of responsibility for our own health and do whatever we can in our own power to avoid being sick in the first place? That’s a public health idea I would like to see policy built upon.

At 73 years of age Mike you have done exceptionally well. Congratulations on the lifestyle change and I hope you are an example to many others to follow. Ignore the people who are bringing pain to your moment of glory, they must be jealous because you look so damn fantastic!

If you missed the hoo ha, then catch up here.