Recently by Mark Sisson: A Primal Take on Body Image
I don’t usually stick a Dear Mark post in the middle of the week, but it’s not every day that I receive a barrage of questions on a single topic from dozens of insistent readers demanding answers. Immediately after yesterday’s launch of the 21-Day Total Body Transformation, I began receiving emails from hesitant readers. Some were PB diehards skeptical of the book’s value to them, others wanted it but needed some clarification before pulling the trigger. It was a wide range of questions I received, many of which overlapped with one another, so in today’s post I’ll do my best to collate, condense, and collapse them all into a few select questions that represent the general gist of yesterday’s emails.
Hopefully it’s helpful for everyone.
I’ve been Primal for a couple years now and have things pretty dialed in. Do I need this book?
No. You don’t technically need it. If you’re Primal, content with your health, body composition, stress levels, performance, etc., and pretty much cruising along, you probably don’t need the book. However, anyone will still benefit from reading it, even the most diehard grub-eating, shoe-eschewing, gallon-of-tallow-rendering Primal Blueprinter. Everyone has at least one area of their lives that needs improvement, one aspect that could be tightened up or dialed in a bit further. This book addresses those areas (and everything else). Several commenters and reviewers noted that very feature of it yesterday.
Plus, it’s really the best, easiest and least expensive (at the time of publishing this post it’s only $13.77 on Amazon.com) response to someone interested in learning about the Primal way of life. Just hand ’em a copy of the book and be on your merry way.
Mark, how is this different from the Primal Leap?
Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is that it doesn’t include the one-on-one support of the Primal Leap, and there’s no DVD, fancy three-ring binder or CDs. The good news is that it’s a whole lot cheaper than the Leap kit. Both products offer essentially the same thing – a step-by-step, day-by-day explicit explanation of the Primal transformation process – just with different audiences in mind. I created the Primal Leap because some folks simply need the multi-media input and direct, full, personal support to go along with the guidebook. It takes all the guesswork out of this stuff when you can get feedback directly from the source. OTOH, with The 21-Day Transformation I'm offering a distillation of all this great info for folks who want everything spelled out simply for minimal cost.
The Primal Leap is first class (free premium booze, personal attendant, reclining seat) and The 21-Day Transformation is business class for next to nothing, but they both arrive at the same destination. And everyone gets to point and laugh at the suckers in coach eating the SAD.
How is this different from The Primal Blueprint?
The Primal Blueprint takes a broader, more philosophical perspective that requires the reader get deeper into the science, the evolution and the back-story before getting into the "meat" of it. That works well for a LOT of people. For The 21-Day Transformation we took all the observations and questions we’d gathered from tens of thousands of user experiences through the PB, MDA and the MDA forum, Primal Leapers and PAST seminar attendees and then used that input to reframe the Primal experience for those who prefer to cut to the chase ("just give me the meat, Mark. Just tell me exactly what to do"). It’s a wholly new experience, with new insights, new clarifications on older ideas, and a ton of added value. Plus, it’s more visual and succinct than The Primal Blueprint, making it an easier, quicker read for folks who want to jump in right away.
Most importantly, though, this book tells readers exactly what to do with less (but just enough) of the “why.” It doesn’t theorize; it cuts right to the bone and tells you what to do and how to do it.
You call your seminar series the Primal Blueprint transformation. Any link between that and this book?
Oh, definitely. Transformation (the book) effectively condenses Transformation (the seminar) into a print publication. It covers all the same material, plus more, and is designed to give you the direction you need to go Primal. If you’ve already been to one of my seminars, this book picks up where it (and my other books) left off. It will be a nice refresher course of the material, and if you aren’t able to make it to one, this book is a pretty good replacement for what you’re missing.
If you’re worried about missing out on seeing my mug in person, I’ve conveniently placed plenty of photos of yours truly in strategic locations throughout the book, including on the cover (and yes, that’s my wife Carrie (age 55) running on the beach next to me). It’s not quite the same as being at the seminar, but it’s close enough. Sadly, I was unable to effectively replicate the lunch refreshments usually offered at our seminars. I advise nibbling on some jerky as you read.
Mark, how can you call it a total body transformation in 21 days?
You’re not going to lose all the weight you want in 21 days. You’re not going to replace most of your body fat with mostly lean mass in 21 days. You’re not going to reverse type 2 diabetes, get off all your meds (maybe some of ’em, though), and forever correct your skewed lipid numbers in just 21 days.
But that’s not the point. The point of the 21 day period is to reprogram your genes to become an efficient fat burner, so that you can eventually lose all the weight you want, start to heal metabolic damage and arrive at your ideal body composition. It’s to effortlessly lose half a dozen pounds in a few weeks, when previously you’ve struggled to lose that many in four months, so that the road to getting lean suddenly opens up. It’s to show you that it's never too late to improve your health, that this “getting healthy, fit, lean, and happy” stuff isn’t that hard – or even unpleasant. It’s downright simple, intuitive, and pleasurable.
