Why Paleo FX Rekindled My Commitment to Health

I used to have a million reasons why I shouldn’t attend a health conference like Paleo FX.  I’m going to try and articulate what Paleo FX 2013 did for me that trumps every money, time and sad story I could tell myself about not going (which I did for several years).

Conferences like this pour gasoline on the “commitment fire” burning deep inside the attendees, and it’s the one thing above all else that seems to last when I get home.

Sure, the knowledge and friendships are useful but they take work to develop.  However, the commitment is like an energy that gets refueled by attending the conference.  It continues burning when I get back.

As a society, it seems like we don’t make many commitments in today’s ever changing world.  There’s always a way out, an easy distraction and excuse.  Like myself, those of you reading this have likely committed to recovering your health and carrying it gracefully into old age.

And at Paleo FX, I felt an overwhelming sea of energy and commitment.  Of course the presentations were great, the people were awesome, and Austin has great tequila and plenty of good food.  But those don’t really impress me as much as the vibe I got from the other attendees.

They were all extremely committed to health… and I talked with people of every level of health.  From those sick and struggling to those getting better to those who are pursuing even higher level goals of health and wellness.  The one thing in common is they all had that look in their eye and of utter commitment.

Health goes up.  Health goes down.  It’s ever changing.

I’m very grateful for the people who gifted me a renewed energy of commitment.  Commitment is what keeps me going when health is down, it’s what allows me to zoom out to a yearly time frame and remember that I’m much healthier than what I was this time last year, and the year before and so on.

I’m winning this game over the last 5 years and that’s what really matters.

Just like seasons of nature change, so too will your health.  And the only thing that really matters is that  when you’re down, the commitment is still burning inside you.  It’s that commitment that will make you start your 10th diet, fire another natural health practitioner, and spend another $300 on testing to get it figured out.

The best part of the whole story is that commitment is only for yourself.  I don’t owe you anything and I don’t expect anything of you.  All I can do is commit to myself and I hope you do the same.  And after you’ve done that make sure you schedule events that will add to that fire for continual health and wellness.

Such as going to Paleo FX next year, because the conference and the attendees will be there to pick you up and celebrate.

My Favorite Paleo FX Vendors

I sampled a few great companies and feel the need to spread the word about them here…

Epic Bars -These “protein bars” are seriously mind blowing good.  They are the texture of a soft jerky and the taste of actual meal.  The ingredients are top notch as well.  My favorite bar was the bison but the beef was great too, turkey was last but by no means bad.  The beef and turkey are SCD legal and the bison bar is SCD legal enough for me, but some might object to a small amount of sugar in the bacon.

Paleo Powder – Most all purpose seasonings are suspect, either they have MSG or gluten or some added sugars.  Paleo Powder, as far as I was told, has none of these, and it does taste really good.  I will be playing around with it for pork rubs and some steak rubs.

Kasandrinos Olive Oil – I don’t trust name brand olive oil anymore.  I’ve bought expensive olive oil and they do taste completely different than normal supermarket brands.  I tasted some of the Kasandrinos olive oil and it has that bite after taste that the real olive oil tends to have.  Moving forward, this will be one of the brands I use.

Shout Outs to New and Old Friends

I want to start by thanking those of you who shook my hand and thanked us for this blog and our products.  You might not have any clue what it’s like to be on this side of the handshake, but from the bottom of our hearts, we can’t thank you enough for being bold and saying hello or sharing your story with us.

Massive thanks to Corbin from Paleolife365 for the mini tour of Austin and for taking us to my new favorite burger place, Wholly Cow.  Not to mention this guy is freaking funny… check out his new comedy podcast.

We were thankful to chill with Sean Croxton from Underground Wellness.  He’s been producing very high level content for the past 4 years and his work has introduced me to several people who ended up helping my health.  I interviewed him last year and I’m grateful for all that he’s taught us.  He’s also got a sweet Sexual health summit coming up so stay tuned for news on that.

To Jen, it was great to connect with you and I can’t wait till our next chat.  I did a podcast with Evan a few weeks ago and we recorded a video at the conference… good to meet you man.

Ben, Jeremy and Louise, Dan, Stephanie, Ben, it was a pleasure seeing you all again, can’t wait for AHS 2013 in Atlanta.

There was an awesome event organizer who drove us to get some BBQ at lunch… I forgot your name but thank you!  And to those who I can’t remember, I apologize.

Oh, and I can now scale 8 foot walls!

Hands down, the coolest thing we did at Paleo FX was the Parkour clinic.  It was run by Texas Parkour gym coaches Matt and Tracy.  For those who’ve never heard of this, when you watch a master like these coaches, Parkour it like dancing with nature.  If you watch me do it, it’s mostly like being a kid again and learning to climb, fall and horse around.  We jumped over things, went around things, did a few flips and also learned how to climb an 8 foot wall!

We had such a great time and wanted to give them a special thanks.

Lastly, thanks to the organizers and staff of Paleo FX, we will back next year!

-Steve