Gary Collins champions simplicity and truth in his approach
Located remotely in northeast Washington State (and essentially ‘off the grid’), Gary Collins is an evangelist for health and wellness based on primal concepts. That’s pretty wordy, huh? What exactly does that mean? Gary explains that he believes that if we look back the ways and methods of primal man we can clearly see the manner in which we meant to live. Hence, in adopting a similar lifestyle we can improve our physical, mental, and emotional well being.
“Getting back to the roots of how men (and women) were meant to eat, move, and live is a key to well being” Gary explains, “If you were to some up what that means in a word, it would be – Simplicity.”
Gary’s background includes an extensive history and experience in the health, food, and drug industry. He’s worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a Special Agent in the past. This history gives him a very unique set of skills and perspective. “People have really complicated the process of achieving wellness and living a healthy life. There are so many fads, methods, and gizmos out there it can mask the simplicity of living optimally.”
“People are actually over-thinking what it takes to achieve and maintain wellness. The human body is clearly a very complex organism but it’s care and maintenance is actually pretty simple.”
“Physical fitness isn’t about working out like a madman but it’s about consistency that built on doing a little bit of what your body was meant to do and doing it everyday. Otherwise you’ll end up on the “yo-yo” of working out a couple of weeks then your off and the wheels are coming off and so forth and so on.”
Gary started working with clients to help people improve their physical fitness in his early 20s. “Initially, I was doing it for free. I had people around me that knew I was into fitness and exercising so they would come to me. It wasn’t until after years of doing this and I was out of agency work that I started training people for a living.”
Gary used his experience and special incite to develop the ‘Primal Power Method’ with key principles: knowledge is power, keep it simple, and do something everyday. Simplicity is a cornerstone of what the Primal Power Method is all about.
“I always keep Primal Power Method guides short, simple, and easy to apply.”
Gary keeps simplicity and the ease of implementation at the forefront of what he does. “It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and then lose patience in the process if what you’re doing is too complex or filled with too much fluff. I want people to be able to keep at it and have patience. The damage that an inactive and unhealthy lifestyle causes can’t be undone overnight.”
“My background in the food and drug industry has given me some knowledge and incite into why we as Americans are obese and overweight. Our food industry is driven by consumer demand and consumption. The more people eat and consume, the more the food industry as a whole will profit.” Gary believes that the profit driven (not health driven) food industry is the underlying driver behind how we are marketed and why our country has an obesity epidemic. “Sugar is highly addictive. The food manufacturing industry knows this. It’s no accident that many of our foods have a high sugar content. It drives consumption which in turn drives profits – through addiction.”
Off the Grid
Gary grew up in a very small town in Nevada and loves the outdoors. “This wasn’t something that I just did off the cuff. It’s something that I wanted to get back to. I’m not totally cut off from society or anything like that. I have the internet and actually work on the internet but it’s very simplistic and peaceful lifestyle. There is no traffic, no annoying noises, it’s simplicity.”
Cooking & Foods
“I’ve found that today it’s seems that not a lot of people cook. Most people don’t like to hear this but you can’t truly eat healthy and clean without cooking. You have to be self reliant when it comes to preparing food for yourself. It’s essential to learn some basic cooking techniques that will allow you to prepare healthy foods that don’t poison your body.”
One thing that Gary wants to you understand is that there is definitely a difference between organic foods and non-organic foods that you find in your markets. “When you read media or information that suggest that there is not a difference between organic and non-organic foods – that information is totally incorrect. There is absolutely a difference and it’s essential that you buy, cook, and consume organic foods and free range animal meats that are free from biogenetic and chemical engineering.
The mass food industry is nervous about the organic food movement because the knowledge about these issues is spreading, gaining momentum, and the number of organic farms are proliferating rapidly. All this momentum is eating in the mass food market’s bottom line, so they have interests in proliferating faulty information that suggests you are wasting money on more expensive foods. In reality, there is totally a huge difference and you should be spending to get organic and free range foods.”
Diet
One of the biggest misconceptions in nutrition is our beliefs on calorie counting. A “calorie is not a calorie” – meaning that all calories are the same. Every day your calorie requirements change. It’s a good chance that if you are eating the exact same number of calories everyday, you will likely gain weight.
If you are eating too little calories, your health will suffer from that as well because your metabolism will adjust to that low level of calories and your metabolism will lower.
The other big misconception is the obsession with fat consumption. People go straight to a food label and look first at the fat content. What they should be looking at first is the sugar and carbohydrate content. If a product has zero grams of fat but has 50 grams of sugar and a super high carbohydrate content that will make you fat really quickly.
Food labels are made pretty tricky to read and they are made that way on purpose. If people truly understood them all, the food manufacturers understand that they wouldn’t be selling as much product.
Getting Started
The mental side of motivation is the first and only real hurdle. You have to make changes and establish habits for yourself for your own reasons. If you are doing anything for any other reasons other than for yourself and for your reasons you will likely fail. Once your mentality changes in that way, then you’ll be ready to make progress toward your fitness and health goals.
Time and Money
The average American watches 3-4 hours of television a day and spends 2 hours a day on social media. You can definitely fit in 30 minutes a day to exercise.
Additionally, it’s more economical and takes less time to cook for yourself than to run to a fast food restaurant to grab a meal. If you’re skeptical test it and time it.
