The world you live in is at odds with how your body and mind evolved.
That includes your desk job.
Being proactive in realigning your mismatch can give you more control of your working life and long-term health.
Feel more capable of adapting to change.
Many people find adapting to change - for instance those you're facing in your job - easier when the basics are in place.
It's basically less stress to deal with.
Have more energy at home & work.
Many people report having more energy at the end of the day.
Leaving more for family and friends.
Better chances of a long, healthy life.
A large share of chronic disease risk is linked with this gap between our modern lifestyles and the lifestyle your body evolved for.
The research points to simple changes showing the biggest improvements.
What happened?
This story goes back to a time long forgotten in the history of our world.
1.8 million years ago.
It was the beginning of a lifestyle that kept your ancestors alive so you could be born.
It was the time of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Your ancestors' bodies and minds adapted to the food they ate, the way they lived, moved and worked.
Don't worry, you don't need to live in a cave, start hunting or give up Netflix!
In the last few generations, your lifestyle (work and home) has diverged so far from the way of life that kept your ancestors alive for millions of years, the lifestyle your body and mind evolved for - evolutionary mismatch.
Research links this evolutionary mismatch to a whole host of health problems.
Maslow’s Hierarchy
At the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are your Physiological needs.
These Physiological Needs are what you need to stay ALIVE.
They include nutrition, exercise, sleep and the environment you live and work in.
You can’t survive without them.
But survival doesn't mean health, energy, or performance.
Nutrition
Most modern diets look nothing like what our physiology evolved for.
Exercise
Most people no longer move like our physiology evolved for.
Sleep
Most people no longer sleep the way our physiology evolved for.
Environment
Most people no longer work or live in environments they evolved for.
You're still here!
Despite all this, you're still here - not just reading this but surviving, alive and kicking.
You are a F1 car.
Designed for the racetrack.
You have a team of expert engineers giving you everything you need to be the best you can be.
When you're flying down the straight, hitting 235 mph with your engine singing, time standing still, it's heaven.
You're in flow.
You're in your element.
As Maslow would say, you've reached self-actualisation.
Right now, you're aligned with your environment - it's what you were designed for.
Someone thinks it's a good idea to put you, a multi-million pound F1 car, on a UK road.
You work, you can drive, but it feels like you've been torn from a dream and thrown into a nightmare.
Potholes, kerbs, slow drivers, low octane fuel, dodge garages, yuk.
235 mph is a thing of the past; you're more likely to get done for speeding at 23.5 mph in Wales.
Even if you hit 70, a pothole would probably send you to F1 heaven.
For you, an F1 car, this is your evolutionary mismatch.
You survive, but can't reach your full potential.
Your body and mind are similar.
Your physiological systems (physiology) allow you to adapt to your environment.
But take it too far or for too long, and things start to go wrong.
The Pinnacle
An F1 car is the pinnacle of automotive engineering.
You are vastly more complicated and priceless than an F1 car.
An F1 car can't feed itself, heal, write code, walk up stairs, or raise children.
An F1 car can't decide that the UK roads aren't healthy for it and that it wants to be put back on the racetrack.
You might be asking yourself:
Why has no one told me that this 'evolutionary mismatch' is a big health and performance factor that the research points to?
A few of the reasons are:
Science
Science and medicine like to specialise: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, ...
If you're in one, you're not in the other - tribes, if you will.
People tend to stay in their tribes where it's safe.
Each specialism has their own precious piece of the puzzle.
Finding the whole puzzle is rare.
Time
A doctor's appointment is enough time to treat what's in right in front of them.
It's not enough time for doctors to dig into the root causes of your health issues, or redesign the environment that produced it.
Prevention is better than an appointment.
Work
Our work environment has evolved over time, creating a worse environment for you and what would seem a cost-effective environment for the business.
Your employer isn't to blame. They inherited desk jobs from the previous generations, as did you.
There are more human ways of working you can learn and use.
Culture
You were born into this world of Supermarkets, Cars, Phones, TVs, marketing, and Fast food - it's normal for you.
It's impossible to see what came before unless you look for it or you are shown.
1.8 million years of hunter-gathering is too much to comprehend.
One option is to learn and give your body and mind what it needs.
Have you ever wondered how birds, foxes, rabbits, monkeys, and other animals manage to stay healthy without all the marketing bumpf you get, or without doctors and researchers with PhD's?
As you might expect, it's been overcomplicated. The foundations of being healthy are fairly simple.
Our modern world likes to hide them.
From Mismatch to Alignment
In 3 Simple Steps
Knowledge
Learn more about the evolutionary mismatch.
What it is, and why it's a problem for you.
See how your nutrition, exercise, sleep and environment are misaligned from what your body requires.
Change the consequences to opportunities for your health at work, health at home, and your longevity.
Shared with you in the Free Foundation League Course
Together
Knowledge is the first part.
Putting that knowledge into practice is part two. You can do it in 2 ways:
- By yourself.
- With other people on a similar journey.
Changes like this are easier together.
We evolved & survived in communities after all.
In the Foundation League Community
You, Growing
You have the knowledge and the community behind you.
Now it's time to make changes, 1 simple habit at a time.
Like one line of code, can grow to be an operating system.
Habits compound.
A new, aligned, healthier you, and growing.
Building on the Foundation League Course in the Foundation League Community
The Foundation League
Together, these 3 make up the Foundation League.
The Foundation League gives you everything you need to grow and transform.
It includes the Foundation League Course and being a member of the Foundation League Community
Inside the Foundation League
You Receive:
The Foundation League Course
So you understand more about the "Evolutionary Mismatch", what the science says about the modern environment - work and home - and what other people have changed.
Think of this as your initiation into the Foundation League so everyone in the community has the same level of knowledge.
The Foundation League Community
Full membership to the private members-only Foundation League community for like-minded people to connect with and share wisdom and stories.
Build Habits
So you can become the person you want to become, rather than just dreaming about them, with support and a growing library of habits to make your own.
Plus Bonuses
24/7 access, habit guides, challenges, meetups, often paid for by your employer and more.
Join The Foundation LeagueAn Outline of the Course Modules
The Foundation League Course
-
Understanding the Human Foundation
10 lessons- Introduction
- Introduction Quiz
- A Brief History of Humans - Part 1 - Introduction
- A Brief History of Humans - Part 1 - Quiz
- A Brief History of Humans - Part 2 - Lifestyles
- A Brief History of Humans - Part 2 - Quiz
- Human Evolutionary Mismatch
- Human Evolutionary Mismatch - Quiz
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Our Health
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Our Health - Quiz
-
The Physiological Layer: Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep, and Environment
11 lessons- Evolutionary Mismatch - Nutrition
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Nutrition - Quiz
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Exercise Part 1
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Exercise Part 2
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Exercise - Quiz
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Sleep
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Sleep - Quiz
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Environment
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Environment - Quiz
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Stress
- Evolutionary Mismatch - Stress - Quiz
-
Summary
4 lessons- People Health
- People Health - Quiz
- Business Health
- Business Health - Quiz
It's your choice:
You have 3 options:
Do Nothing
Stay where you are.
If you’re already happy with your understanding of how the environmental mismatch can impact your health and you’re not worried about it, then maybe you don’t need the Foundation League or the Foundation League Course.
But if you would like to find out, then you have 2 other options.
Learn More
If you want to learn more and don't have hours to spend researching, you can join the Free Foundation League Course and work through it at your own pace.
Typically around 2.5 hours.
Foundation League
Everything you need to understand the Evolutionary Mismatch.
Be part of a community of people on a similar journey.
Make positive habits a part of your lifestyle.
Foundation League Course
Free
Roughly 2 hours of your time
- Learn about the Evolutionary Mismatch
- Understand the gap in our foundations
- Advice for fixing the gap: at home & work
- Updates included
- Better shared with colleagues
Foundation League
£97
per year, for life
- Course & Community Membership
- 100 spaces available
- Normal Price £194 (50% discount)
- Essentially £8 a month
- Less than 2 takeaway coffees!
30-Day Guarantee
If you're not happy after 30 days, then money back, no problemo.
I'd rather give you your money back and have a community of people who want to be there and help than someone who doesn't fit. No hard feelings; take what you've learnt, and hopefully you'll find it useful.
This Used To Be Me ...
In 2019, I tore my Achilles.
And after 4+ years of cascading problems followed - gout, weight gain - I hit 120kg - and others.
As an Engineer, I did root cause analysis on my own biology. And it would take over a year to piece the puzzle together using research from people like:
- Anthropologists like Richard B. Lee and Daniel Lieberman, on hunter-gatherers, evolution and exercise.
- Dr Robert Lustig and Dr Richard Johnson on nutrition, metabolism and sugar.
- Dr Matthew Walker, on sleep.
- Dr Andy Galpin and Dr Peter Attia, on exercise.
- Dr Robert Sapolsky on stress and environment.
- The list goes on
What was interesting is that this research showed these issues impact millions of people throughout the world, and not just me.
Health is being overcomplicated in our modern world, and its cost to you and me is high.
When I took simple steps to reverse this evolutionary mismatch in my own life (realigning), my personal health improved substantially in about a year.
I’ve made lifestyle habit changes that I will keep.
This is my own personal story. We're all different. What will happen to you will probably be different.
The good news is research associates more aligned lifestyles with:
- Lower risks of chronic diseases.
- A healthy life, with increased longevity.
- Less stress - making people more able to adapt to a changing work environment.
This is all simple stuff we should all know, and what your hunter-gatherer ancestors did without thinking.
Realigning this evolutionary mismatch in your life is important for you and millions of people around the world.
Disclaimer
Phil Elson is not a healthcare professional. This is health education, not medical advice, and none of it is tailored to you. Symptoms, diagnosed conditions and medication are GP conversations. Personal stories here are individual experiences, not typical results.