The number one priority of the human species is to turn calories into babies.

Without calories we cannot produce babies because insufficient energy means we’re dead so, on the most basic level…our internal ‘drive’ says get food, have sex.

Also, as an interesting aside, it’s funny how those are two of the most enjoyable and pleasurable things in life…design mistake? Probably not!

Being that turning calories into babies is priority number one, it only makes sense that the thing that we want to avoid first and foremost is not having enough calories i.e. starvation and there are two things that can lead to starvation…

One is obviously not enough food and the other is too much movement and you can think about this like gas in your car…if you don’t have enough gas to keep up with the demand of how much you need to drive, ya run out of fuel.

Meaning, we’re actually wired as humans to move less and eat more, more specifically, move as much as we need to in order to yield sufficient calories i.e. hunting and foraging, but not so much as to where the calories that we acquire via hunting and foraging fall short of the caloric burn in order to get them, for example…

I don’t want to walk 10 miles to get 100 calories because I’m going to burn far more than 100 calories walking 10 miles…that equation doesn’t make sense from an evolutionary standpoint and said equation actually has a name, it’s called optimal foraging strategy and all animals abide by this formula, not just us.

So, our ancestors had an issue of food availability, so they asked themselves, how can we improve the formula i.e. get more calories and burn fewer calories…enter technology…

Yield more food and get things to move us vs. us move ourselves like horses, carriages, cars, escalators, elevators, segways, planes etc.

As our technology has developed, we now have access to more than enough food and we literally don’t even have to get up off of the couch in order to get it i.e. uber eats, skip the dishes, direct restaurant delivery…we’ve got tons of options!

The kicker is, we still have the same genetic makeup or built in formula, get calories and make babies via optimal foraging strategy…aka move less and eat more. That was a great fit given the food environment that our ancestors evolved in, however this human programming became a massive issue given our current technological advances…this is what’s called an ‘evolutionary mismatch.’

Simply put, technology has outpaced our genes because technology has changed SO much, however our genes take far longer to adapt to the environment…so people think that they’re inherently lazy pieces of sh*t because they want order in and skip their workouts and now you can clearly see that that’s just silly right!?

If you dropped a fresh kill in front of a lion, do you think that that lion is going to turn down that meal and say, ‘thank but no thank you, I need to fill out all of my rings on my iWatch, burn a few more calories and really earn my lunch’…obviously not, it’s going to eat that meal and then take a nap!

We’ve done such a great job of solving the problems around turning to calories into babies that now we have a new problem on our hands, the pendulum has swung in the complete other direction and the new problem is…

Now we have too much food available and very little need to use energy in order to obtain it and therefore the question becomes…how do we eat less and move more given that we’re wired to eat more and move less? This issue is why my job exists, it’s why you’re reading this article…

It’s a new and novel problem because food abundance is a new and novel thing.

This whole situation is a matter of diminishing returns, for example…growing more food and creating tech to make accessing that food easier is great, until it isn’t, until the technological advancement itself creates the exact opposite issue…we’re eating far too much and it’s making us fat and sick.

So, you’re not lazy, you’re human, however…our modern environment and technology is here to stay and so you’ve got a few options…

The first option is to throw your hands up in the air and say, ‘sweet, I’m not lazy, I’m wired to move less and eat more and there’s nothing that I can do, I’m off the hook.’ This option requires very little effort and awareness and you don’t really need to change anything, however the trade-off is that life is gonna kinda suck because being fat and sick creates a whole bunch of unnecessary suffering.

Option number two is to acknowledge this evolutionary mismatch and adapt and rise to the occasion by implementing strategies to work with the system vs. just give up and wave the white flag. This option is going to provide you with health and a much better quality of life however…it requires effort and awareness.

Being that you’re reading this, you’re clearly interested in option number two and so now I’m going to go through the step by step process outlining how to thrive despite our current evolutionary tendencies as humans and essentially the fat promoting environment that we now find ourselves living in.

Step 1: Set yourself up for success

Meaning, ditch all or at the very least limit your access to super calorie dense hyper-palatable foods, which equates to keeping plenty of single ingredient healthful whole food at your home and keeping either none or at least fewer treats around because…

It’s not a matter of if you’re going to eat the junk food, it’s a matter of when you’re going to eat the junk food.

Also, I’d recommend tossing the idea of ‘well I just need to be disciplined and say no to the cookies on the counter and the ice cream in the freezer’…you’re giving yourself way too much credit!

Do you really think that you, one human individual is going to out-willpower millions of years of evolution…it ain’t gonna happen…that’s like trying to be celibate while sleeping in the same house with 100 of the best looking people that you can possibly imagine…it’s not a matter of if you’re going to crack, it’s when.

You can also think about it like this…when your goal is to get leaner and healthier, which we’ve already established is difficult due to our wiring and how it’s now mismatched to our environment, why in the world would you want to make something hard even harder?

The truth is, if you’re not setting yourself up for success, you just don’t actually want what you say that you want as much as a you say that you want it.

Step 2: Step your game up…literally

Getting in the habit of walking will change your life, I see it over and over in my clients and no it’s super sexy, but it’s magic in terms of yielding results because it’ll not only help you burn fat, it’ll also reduce your stress levels, increase your sense of well-being, have you make better food decisions due to its appetite regulating effects and the list goes on…walking is wildly underrated!

I have all my clients aim to get either 10,000 steps per day or tally up a total of 70,000 steps for the week as a whole, either or works.

Step 3: Sleep like a baby

Sleep 7-9 hours per night and ideally wake up without an alarm in the morning because when you wake up without an alarm, you allow yourself to go through and complete all of the appropriate sleep cycles…whereas if you use an alarm to wake up, you’re interrupting your natural sleep cycle.

This is also an awesome solution to morning grogginess because when you wake up naturally as you finish your last sleep cycle, you’ll feel more alert because that’s when your body was actually ready to wake up vs. to the buzzing of your alarm.

Now you might be thinking, ‘well Marcus, how do I wake up without an alarm, I’ll sleep until 10am!?’

The answer is simple…if you’d sleep until 10am, you’re not going to bed early enough.

Now it’s worth mentioning that if you’re dealing with some sleep debt, you are going to need to give yourself additional sleep up front in order to pay off that debt or essentially catch up on missed sleep, but once you do, you’re good to go and you should settle in the 7-9 hour range waking up feeling rested and alert all day long.

The one caveat here is new parents…just do the best ya can!

So it’s not easy to be in shape nowadays, however it’s far easier than the alternative, which is hunting and foraging in the wild for every single calorie that you consume because if you’re not successful, ya die. I think most folks would prefer our modern setup.

Just think about this for a second…

Imagine if someone dropped you in the middle of a forest Bear Grillz style with just the clothes on your back and was like, ‘alright, see ya in a few weeks’…that would suck…even if you didn’t find a single calorie to eat, fortunately you wouldn’t die because we all have PLENTY of body fat to keep us fueled for weeks if not months, however dehydration would be a much bigger issue!

Fun fact, there are actually hunter gatherer societies that are living right now and you can check out what it’s like to survive as a human in the wild on YouTube. If you’re interested, just type in ‘Hadza’ and there is a ton of content there and it’s fascinating!!

These folks are literally drinking water out of puddles that they find and hunting with handmade bows and arrows for their dinner…it’s wild, pun intended…and the skills that these folks have for tracking animals, making fire, creating tools…it’s just amazing and this is how we all used to live…

Our modern society is very much modern and modern day conveniences create modern day problems and modern day problems require modern day solutions.

So…set yourself up for success nutritionally, walk every day and get the sleep that your body requires…

I know that it’s easier said than done, however…what’s the alternative?

Being fat and sick…?