The Impact of a Natural Diet and Consistent Physical Activity on Daily Life

In a world where processed foods have been advertised as a normal part of the daily diet, it is essential to break societal norms and become aware of the consequences of the glorified modern diet. During my sophomore year, before every basketball practice, I would walk to McDonald’s and order over a thousand calories to eat right before a grueling two-hour session with my team. Without any research on the downsides of this routine, I was unaware that the sluggish feeling I pushed through during practice was entirely due to the food I had eaten. Additionally, my unproductive studying after practice was the result of the processed and unhealthy foods I was consuming throughout the day.

After developing healthy eating habits based on a natural diet, my overall life improved immensely. I believe that the human body is meant to live in conditions like those in which we evolved over centuries. There is a reason why bears hunt fish, why wolves hunt deer, and why they have evolved to process and grow from their diet. Due to the condition's species live in, they have to adapt to what they eat and how they live. Here is where it gets complicated. Since the human mind is far more advanced than other animals, the natural adaptation around a lifestyle gets behind, due to the quickly made technology to alter that changed the way we live drastically. Because humans evolved in a society without factories to produce food, we now see a modern adaptation to a “normal” diet in fast food restaurants and the middle aisles of grocery stores. However, to achieve the highest capability of our own bodies, it is essential to base our diets on the same meats and vegetables that humans have consumed throughout history. It can be as simple as replacing sugary cereal for breakfast with eggs and fruit and substituting fried foods during the day with red meats and vegetables. Through a diet based on what humans had access to centuries ago, a clear headspace and natural energy can be some of the many benefits gained.

On the topic of physical activity, I believe that just breaking a sweat every day can have great benefits. Whether warming up before an important game, starting a lengthy Saturday run, or pushing through the final set on the bench press, the feeling of productivity and the sensation of caring for and building up the body from breaking that first sweat is a blessing. When you remove your mind from the long, arduous climb ahead of you and instead concentrate on just sweating, the dominoes toward a healthy life will begin to fall. The human body was never meant to sit for hours in front of a computer or in a classroom listening passively. From the start of human evolution, we hunted and migrated activities that naturally kept us fit. In today’s world, if you can focus on sweating every day, you can receive the same natural benefits in a new way. Through months of consistency, the workouts will become habitual, the routines will be ingrained, and the benefits to your body will carry over into every other part of your life. Through my training to run a marathon, playing basketball at the varsity level, and weightlifting, one thing has not changed: the feeling of perspiration. It has allowed me not only to survive in the body and environment around me but to thrive.

With a rigorous academic workload, I took advantage of breaking a sweat before preparing for an exam to clear my mind and release stress and anxiety from other parts of my life. This helped me produce effective, focused work. It was evident that the weight lifted off my shoulders from knowing I was keeping my body fit allowed me to shift all my focus toward my studies. Whether it be a job, school, or any task that requires brainpower, the solution to feeling helplessly unproductive can be as simple as getting your body in the right state to exert mental focus in work.

The human body is complicated, and it seems that everyone on the internet has a new product or quick solution to make everything perfect. But I do believe that the solution to a healthy lifestyle is simple by basing the foods and physical strain that our ancestors before us lived on. The natural course of evolution for humans has been altered by our quick advancement of technology over the past few decades, the body cannot evolve quick enough to live in this new environment. Humans are not meant to consume a high number of processed foods while dismissing physical activity. The body has adapted to consume the plants and animals that were the standard of a human diet in the past, and it is the key to unlocking a healthy body to perform at the highest ability mentally and physically.