The Mission
As recent high school graduates, we have seen a lot of kids struggle with nutrition and fitness over our years at school. An idea came to our minds to create a website where kids who are on their way to, or are already in college could find great information on health, nutrition and functional fitness. Being students ourselves, we are extremely excited to be able to write about health. A lot of times kids forget how to eat healthy when they go off to college (see “freshman 15″). We are also excited to post about how students can effect their overall well being through fitness. If you want to get in, or stay in great shape throughout college, despite the challenges you may face, you have come to the right place!
While this is an opportunity for us to reach out to college students, this site can easily be adopted as a health resource for people of all ages. This site can help you find important sources and information that will help you change your life for the better.
the Writers:
Josh Singer
Hey everyone! I’m Josh Singer and I went Primal back a little over a year ago and let me tell you now—it was the best decision I’ve made in my life thus far. In middle and the beginning of high school I was a husky kid; not necessarily fat, but kinda chubby, due to my terrible eating habits. My parents would cook great food for me at home, but in the cafeteria at school or for snacking, I would eat whatever junk I could get my hands on. After discovering the Primal/Paleo lifestyle and implementing it into my daily routine, I feel more awake, functional, and full of energy. I realized that in order to fuel my body properly, I would need to eat a much more clean diet. After doing so for a year now, I look great, feel great, and can see my performance improve day-by-day on the baseball field with Primality to thank. I will be attending Dickinson College in the the fall of 2012 and am more excited than ever to set a Primal example in college!
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Max Ungar
Hello, my name is Max Ungar and I have been following a Paleolithic/Caveman style diet for about 1 year now and it has completely changed my life. Before I started the diet, I was around 225 at 6’0 and 16 years old. After a couple of months on the diet, I was down to 195 and after a few more months I was 6’2 195 lbs. Not to mention I felt better, and was performing better athletically. I am a health nut. I believe in healthy lifestyles, paleo eating, crossfit, happiness, living life one step at a time, family, expecting nothing, and experiencing everything. Hopefully this blog will help you delve into the life of a paleolithic diet and keep it through tough, busy times such as college, parenting, or just life.
Follow Max on Twitter! Friend Max on Facebook! Check out Max’s Website!
Have questions for us? About us? Feel free to shoot us an email at cavemancollege@gmail.com
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Disclaimer: Neither of us are professionals, so take what we say with a grain of salt. If you have questions or concerns about anything on Caveman College, you should immediately raise them with a qualified physician. We are only trying to provide a place for students and others to find information which is already available through research on the internet. If we can figure these things out, so can you guys. So please, always talk to a qualified physician about anything you read on this site in order to avoid bodily harm or permanent damage to yourself or others.
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Super excited about your new blog, I was thinking about starting my own as well…but yours fits the bill. As a fellow university student, I love that there are other younger people beginning on this journey. Congrats guys, and I look forward to future postings. Feel free to contact me anytime.
Thanks Chelsea! When did you start your primal journey?
Max,
Over a year ago. I found out I had a gluten allergy and it just avalanched from there. I’m really loving it, from a vegetarian/vegan/rawfoodist who ran multiple miles a day to a Tabata sprint loving primal girl…can’t get any better!
Sounds like an awesome story chelsea! If you would like to write a primal testimony, we would love to hear your story! Shoot us an email at cavemancollege.com!!
Wow, I just want to say I am really impressed with what you guys have done with this website so far! I am currently a junior in college and began eating primal about a year ago. I’m so glad to see more people my age living this lifestyle! Keep up the good work guys!
Zoey,
What school do you go to? Great to hear from another college student who has gone Primal. If you’d be interested in writing a testimonial of your experiences in the Primal sense in college so far, shoot us an email at cavemancollege@gmail.com
Josh,
I am currently studying Nutritional Science at Iowa State. You know, learning about how we need to eat our whole grains and low fat and all that lovely conventional wisdom. I feel a little out of place at times but it is great to meet other people on here who live the way I do! I’ll try my best to write a little something for you guys (no promises that it will be any good lol) and I will hopefully send you something soon!
Be sure to mention how you deal with the education you get with Conventional Wisdom. Do you ever speak out or talk to the professors about Primal/Paleo??
So far I have not, mostly because my professors will mention paleo briefly during lecture and scoff. I will talk more about it in the testimonial for you, but most of them see it as a fad diet and don’t really take it seriously.
Hey Zoey! I had no idea I’d find a fellow Primal follower so close to home! I was born and raised in Ames, but I moved away for school. Glad to see you’re sticking with Primal even if your professors don’t appreciate it though
Great site, guys! I’ve been doing the primal lifestyle pretty well for about two years and have had some amazing results (as I’m sure is no surprise to anyone), but after returning to grad school last Fall, I’ve definitely been running into an unexpected number of challenges. It’s great to see a site out there that caters to the demographic that might need it the most: broke college kids. Keep up the terrific work!
Thanks Tom! Good luck in your primal adventures in grad school!
I am so glad you guys made this site. I’ve been looking for a college-based primal community for quite awhile now. Going primal in college is pretty tough, your social life changes completely and most of your friends think your crazy. It’s nice to see other students going through the same thing.
Thats what we are here for Ami!! Grok On!
Ami – I have the same problem! I love my roomies but they live for their carbs – breadsticks, cereal, granola bars. No matter what I say about Primal they’re just stuck in the SAD mentality! Anyway, I’ve been looking for a primal website for college students for awhile now too. I never really “switched” at a certain time to primal, more like incorporating it into my diet slowly so that I could accept the change better. I’m pretty active right now but the next step: crossfit!
Alex, I understand your predicament with the roommates completely. It’s often times hard to change a person’s habits who don’t want to be changed. What I would say to do is make the Plunge yourself and they will see physical results right in front of them. At that point hopefully they’ll start making healthier choices as well. Crossfit is a great way to get workouts in. Keep at it and grok on! Let us know how you progress.
I Stumbled Mark Sisson’s blog about 6 months ago and loved it, but I was looking for a way to adapt it to the college lifestyle. I was so happy he posted the link to your site a couple weeks ago, this is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks so much guys, looks like you have a great thing started here!
Thanks Stephanie! Keep us updated on your primal adventures in college!
Hey Max and Josh — this is such a great idea! I’ll be starting at the University of Chicago this fall and your site will be a good resource to keep coming back to when it comes to navigating the decidedly un-Primal waters that is college life. : ) I’ve been Primal for the past 6 months on and off. I could care less about bread and pasta, but my biggest downfall is my sugar addiction…
Quick questions:
1. How do you manage your sleep schedule in college? It’s important for me to cultivate an AM gym session, but unless you sleep at, like, 10 PM, it’s not always feasible to get up at 6 AM. How do you guys wake up refreshed and without an alarm clock?
2. What kinds of exercises would you recommend for a college girl, besides CrossFit? CrossFit is kind of expensive and out of the way for me.
3. How did you wean yourself off your sugar addiction (assuming that you had one to begin with?)
I love dark chocolate-covered almonds too much for my own good, haha.
Thanks for spreading the love!
Hey Francesca,
Okay, lets get started on some of these questions…
1. It’s going to be difficult to go to bed early, we know. But, try to have a pretty solid schedule that you stick to most of the time. Remember the 80/20 principle, and remember that napping can be your best friend. As far as the alarm clock goes, some people are really pretty good with there circadian sleeping schedule, others not so much. Look for a post soon to come out about sleep.
2. Most, if not all of the crossfit exercises are do-able in any college gym. crossfit.com puts out a new workout everyday that you can try on your own, just make sure to have someone check your form. If your really not into the crossfit thing, you can just try to do some heavy lifts, sprints and lots of walking. Tabata workouts (8 rounds of 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest) can be a great way to get in a quick workout.
3. It’s pretty tough to get off of that sugar addiction. I saw some research recently that in a study, rats got more addicted to sugar than cocaine so, this isnt going to be easy! Try to avoid all the free, giveaway candy that you find on campus, keep some dark chocolate in your room, and do the best you can. If you consciously think about how the sugar is going to react in your body (insulin spike, acne, chronic disease,etc) the sugar seems much less appetizing.
Hope this helps!
Grok On!
Max