Shortcuts Changed My Life
My real epiphany came after I had retired from
competing, when the endorphins wore off and I
realized that throughout all my pain, suffering and
sacrifice, during all those hundreds of endurance
contests in which I had competed, from the time
the gun went off until the time I crossed the finish
line, not once could I ever truly say to myself “isn’t
this fun!” How sad, really. Life’s too short not to
be enjoyed to the maximum, especially when it
comes to physical pursuits and pleasures.
Granted, I enjoyed a tremendous sense of accom-
plishment from pursuing and achieving compelling
athletic goals, and learned many valuable charac-
ter lessons from the journey. As legendary sub-four
minute miler Sir Roger Bannister said in reflecting
upon his accomplishments on the track, “Struggle
gives meaning and richness to life”. As you pursue
your fitness goals with my guidance, I want to inspire
you to be the best you can be, shatter mental and
physical barriers to peak performance, and achieve
personal growth and enlightenment in the process.
However, I want to help you establish parameters so
that your journey—your struggle to be the best you
can be—is healthy and fun, instead of destructive.
Luckily for me, I was forced to retire from endur-
ance competition due to a broken down body
while I was still a young man. I’ve been able to
enjoy the past couple decades exploring what
it really means to be a strong, fit, lean, healthy
and happy human being. On the occasion of
my 40th birthday, still under the influence of lin-
gering fatigue from my racing days, I got a few
laughs when I made the profound statement that,
“I’d really rather just look fit than be fit.” Really
though, my quip had a measure of truth to it, and
actually became the impetus for me to search for
effective shortcuts to fitness, strength, leanness
and health, that required the least amount of time,
pain, suffering, and sacrifice. That’s what Primal
Blueprint Fitness (PBF) is all about. This booklet
will describe in detail how you can get fit quickly
and then maintain your strength, fitness, leanness
and health well into your 70’s, 80’s and beyond.
And I’ll explain in detail how you can arrange your
physical activities to include the most pleasure,
fun, enjoyment and satisfaction possible.2