• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Paleo Leap
  • Recipes
    • Beef and Red Meat
    • Chicken and Poultry
    • Pork
    • Fish and Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Soups
    • Salads
    • Sides, Veggies and Appetizers
    • Sauces, Dips & Vinaigrettes
    • Drinks
    • Sweets and Snacks
    • Cooking Tips
  • Learn
  • Your Starting Point
    • Topic Index
    • Paleo 101
    • Paleo Meal Plan
    • Paleo Food List
    • Transitioning to Paleo
    • Am I Doing it Right? - Checklist
    • Mini-Course for Beginners
  • Popular Topics
    • Recipes for Beginners
    • Breakfast Ideas
    • Homemade Condiments
    • Legumes
    • Wheat & Gluten
    • Dairy
    • Nightshades
  • More
    • Compilations
    • Foods
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Chicken
  • Pork
  • Snacks
  • Salads
  • Learn Paleo
  • Paleo Cooking Tips
  • Paleo Diet Foods
  • Paleo Recipe Compilations
  • Keto Diet Recipes
  • Paleo Beef and Red Meat Recipes
  • Paleo Drink Recipes
  • Paleo Egg Recipes
  • Paleo Fish and Seafood Recipes
  • Paleo Sauces and Dips
  • Paleo Sides, Veggies and Appetizers
  • Paleo Soup Recipes
  • Paleo Tips & Tricks
  • Paleo Topic Index
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Chicken
    • Pork
    • Snacks
    • Salads
    • Learn Paleo
    • Paleo Cooking Tips
    • Paleo Diet Foods
    • Paleo Recipe Compilations
    • Keto Diet Recipes
    • Paleo Beef and Red Meat Recipes
    • Paleo Drink Recipes
    • Paleo Egg Recipes
    • Paleo Fish and Seafood Recipes
    • Paleo Sauces and Dips
    • Paleo Sides, Veggies and Appetizers
    • Paleo Soup Recipes
    • Paleo Tips & Tricks
    • Paleo Topic Index
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • ร—
    Home ยป Learn About Paleo & Keto Diets

    6 Lessons about Diet you can Learn in the Gym

    Last Modified: Feb 10, 2023 by Paleo Leaper ยท This post may contain affiliate links ยท Leave a Comment

    Sharing is caring!

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Reddit

    Did you ever roll your eyes as a kid when your parents told you that playing sports โ€œbuilt characterโ€?

    Well, your parents were probably right, but you donโ€™t have to play a team sport to learn something from your workouts. Anything that challenges you is an opportunity to learn โ€“ here are 6 lessons that you can take from the gym and apply to your diet, even if you're only competing against yourself.

    1. Something always Beats Nothing.

    You wanted to do a 30-minute run today. But youโ€™re on a tight schedule and you lost 10 minutes of that time because you misplaced your running shoes and had hunt them down. Which of the following is the better response?

    1. Go for a 20-minute run in the time you have left.
    2. Stay home and beat yourself up for being disorganized.

    A, obviously. When you quantify it like that, itโ€™s so easy to see that 20 minutes of running is better than 0 minutes. If nothing else, it keeps you on a roll of doing at least something regularly, so you stay in the habit of putting on your shoes and heading out for a run, and habit is the backbone of long-term lifestyle change.

    Exactly the same thing applies to diet. Even a small improvement is better than no improvement, and one small slip-up doesnโ€™t mean the day is โ€œruined.โ€ Even though itโ€™s harder to quantify โ€œeating well,โ€ doing whatever you can is better than not doing it โ€“ even if itโ€™s just drinking water with your Big Mac instead of Coke.

     2. Focus your Energy where it Counts the Most

    Most people have limited time and energy to spend in the gym โ€“ we canโ€™t do every single exercise that could possibly be good. The key is to

    paleo Chlorella
    Don't worry about "superfoods" unless you have all your basics dialed in and you still have time to spare for your diet.

    prioritize โ€“ focus on the exercises that give you the most bang for your buck, so you can get the biggest improvement with the time and energy you have to put in.

    If you want to gain muscle mass, doing compound joint movements (like squats and deadlifts) gives you more return for your time than set after set of partial range of motion biceps curls. Hypothetically, if you had unlimited time and recovery capacity, doing biceps curls on top of the squats would make you even stronger than the squats alone, but considering that you donโ€™t have unlimited time, the squats are the movement to prioritize.

    The same thing is true of food. Most people have a limited amount of energy to spend on their diet. Focusing on the most important basics (e.g. replacing refined grains with vegetables on your plate, trading sugary sodas for water) will give you a much bigger return for your time than obsessing over every individual micronutrient and tracking your ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fats down to the gram.

    Exotic โ€œsuperfoodsโ€ and fine-tuning ratios of one micronutrient to the other are the partial-range of motion biceps curls of food. Theoretically, they might be useful, but you can get 95% of your potential gains without them, and if you have time or energy limits, focus on other things.

    3. Stalls are Part of Life and Progress is Not Linear

    Some weeks, you wonโ€™t be able to bike or swim or run further than you could last week. Some weeks, you wonโ€™t be able to lift more than you did last week. You may be stuck at the same level for several weeks, and then suddenly have a breakthrough, or just resume steady progress.

    Some weeks, youโ€™ll even go backwards and have to back off a little โ€“ and in fact, sometimes you can do this as part of your plan (itโ€™s called a deload week, and you can read about it here).

    Health is the same way. Progress isnโ€™t always directly proportional to effort, and your body has its own timeline that you canโ€™t really rush. Weight loss plateaus are one example (they happen; theyโ€™ll pass; donโ€™t panic), but you can apply the same principle to any health improvement. If it goes on for too long, it might be time to look for tweaks or changes you could make, but donโ€™t let it make you give up.

    4. At the Very Least, Find a Plan you Donโ€™t Hate.

    You donโ€™t have to be rapturously in love with every aspect of your workout plan. Itโ€™s fine to have some days when youโ€™re not really feeling it; no real human being is super-pumped about their workout every single day. But if every day is a horrible drag, you probably wonโ€™t be doing it for long.

    The same goes for diet: if you hate it, you wonโ€™t keep doing it. And thatโ€™s perfectly reasonable โ€“ a miserable life is not an acceptable price to pay for health. The whole reason youโ€™re trying to eat well is (presumably) to make your life better, so picking a diet that makes your life awful completely defeats the purpose anyway.

    Paleo should be a high-pleasure diet. It doesnโ€™t have to be perfect, but it shouldnโ€™t be awful. Find a version of Paleo that gives you a net gain in pleasure; you deserve it.

    5. Imitating Cavemen is Silly.

    imitating
    (Hopefully) not pictured: you.

    Even if we definitively knew what kind of movement cavemen engaged in (we donโ€™t), itโ€™s silly to take that and just apply it to modern humans. Exercise is supposed to help prepare you for life. But the physical demands on your body are not the same as the physical demands on a cavemanโ€™s body. If youโ€™re preparing for different challenges, why should your workout be exactly the same?

    One big example is mobility work. Maybe cavemen didnโ€™t need to do mobility work at all (and they certainly didnโ€™t have lacrosse balls and foam rollers!). But for modern humans who have to live in a world of office chairs and car seats, it can be a life saver. Should we not do that kind of work just because cavemen didnโ€™t do it?

    The same thing is true of diet. Maybe cavemen ate a lower-carb diet; maybe they ate higher-carb foods; most likely it varied depending on where they lived. But the important question is what works well for modern humans who have those same genes in a different (more sedentary, more stressful, antibiotic-laden, more polluted) environment? Paleo is about learning from cavemen, not slavishly trying to copy everything they did.

    6. Thereโ€™s no One Right Answer.

    Some people are built more for sprinting. Other people are built more for slower, long-distance running. Other people kind of stink at both but they could probably squat a horse. Some people prefer to work out alone; other people couldnโ€™t imagine life without Zumba classes. Some people head outside in all seasons; other people prefer the gym.

    Thereโ€™s no one right way to work out, and no point forcing yourself to do what works for someone else just because it works for them. If running makes you feel vibrant and energized and amazing, run. If it aggravates your old knee injuries and makes you feel achy and awful, donโ€™t run.

    Diet is the same way. Thereโ€™s no One True Way to Paleo. Some people do higher-carb; other people do lower-carb. Some people tolerate dairy; other people donโ€™t. Do what works for you and donโ€™t cram yourself into anyone elseโ€™s mold.

    Have you ever learned something from your workouts that you applied to another part of your life? What was it? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter!

    More Learn About Paleo & Keto Diets

    • closeup of a white bowl filled with Garlic & Roasted Onion Salsa
      Garlic & Roasted Onion Salsa
    • plate filled with blackened tilapia and sliced lemon
      Blackened Tilapia
    • Crab Stuffed Salmon served on a cutting board
      Crab Stuffed Salmon
    • 17 paleo bars & bites to snack on featured
      17 Paleo Bars & Bites To Snack On

    Sharing is caring!

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Reddit

    Filed Under: Learn About Paleo & Keto Diets

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    paleo leap square logo

    Hi, I'm Rick! Paleo Leap is the oldest and biggest resource online, covering everything about the paleo diet. We have over 1500 recipes categorized and plenty of meal plans for you to try.

    More about me โ†’

    Popular

    • Bacon-Wrapped Salmon Featured
      Bacon-Wrapped Salmon Recipe
    • Almond Milk Custard
      Almond Milk Custard Recipe
    • Flourless Banana Pancakes Featured
      Flourless Banana Pancakes Recipe
    • Turban Squash Soup Featured
      Turban Squash Soup Recipe

    Recent Recipes:

    • closeup of a glass of Almond banana cinnamon smoothie on a wood table
      Almond Banana Cinnamon Smoothie
    • glass of Peach and chocolate green smoothie on a wood table with peaches in the background
      Peach and Chocolate Green Smoothie
    • closeup of two glasses of cinnamon and Coconut vanilla milkshake
      Coconut Vanilla Milkshake
    • Pumpkin smoothie in a glass on a wood table with cinnamon sticks in the background
      Pumpkin Smoothie

    Footer

    โ†‘ back to top

    About

    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
    • Cookie Policy

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up! for emails and updates

    Contact

    • Contact

    As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    For your information only. The statements on this website are merely opinions. Paleo Leap does not provide medical or nutritional advice, treatment, or diagnosis. Read the full disclaimer.

    Copyright ยฉ 2023 Paleo Leap