Art Green - Eat Clean, Live Lean: Art Greens Healthy Action Plan

The information contained in this book is provided for general purposes only. It is not intended as and should not be relied upon as medical advice. The publisher and author are not responsible for any specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. If you have underlying health problems, or have any doubts about the advice contained in this book, you should contact a qualified medical, dietary, or other appropriate professional.

First published in 2016

Copyright Arthur Green, 2016

Internal photographs copyright Emerald Green Photography, 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

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A catalogue record for this book is available

from the National Library of New Zealand

ISBN 978 1 877505 61 4

eISBN 978 1 92526 898 0

Cover photograph by Scott McAulay

Cover and internal design by Kate Barraclough

Diagram design by Janet Hunt

CONTENTS

Hey, well done! Whether you have purchased this book, or are just flicking through it while wasting time at a bookshop, it means that you are genuinely interested in your health and wellbeing, which is a great thing in anyones book, including mine pun intended. Go, you!

Of course, there is the chance that you have been given this book by someone who doesnt know you well enough to know that you dont really care about any of this sort of stuff, or you might think that you are perfectly healthy just the way you are. But, if thats you, I urge you to give this book a go for at least a few more pages before you throw it in the bin or re-gift it to an uncle.

The purpose of this book is not to preach; its not to tell you how to do things; and its not to tell you whats right and whats wrong. It is to share with you everything I have learnt about health, nutrition, fitness and wellbeing, and to give you a bit of an insight into my life and why I consider myself to be healthy. Once you have this knowledge, it is up to you to decide if you want to apply some of this stuff to your own life in order to improve it.

This is not a foolproof plan or a rule book. The words and ideas are my beliefs about health and wellbeing, which I have developed over nearly a decade of education, research and experimentation. Once Ive told you a bit about myself, this book starts out looking at optimal nutrition and gives an explanation of the paleo phenomenon how this way of eating natural, unprocessed foods like our ancestors did has become so popular. Ill then explain what the paleo lifestyle entails the foods I choose to eat and what I avoid and how you can get started on it, too. Theres then a section on exercise, which I think should be a critical part of all human lives: it doesnt matter how clean you eat if youre spending most of your time sitting on the couch! I finish up by bringing it all together, under the heading of Wellbeing getting enough sleep, reducing stress and generally being good to yourself.

So go into this book with an open mind. Some of the information may be of use to you; some may not. You might be eager to start trying out aspects of it before you finish reading the whole thing, or you might completely skip chapters that you feel dont apply to you. And thats cool! It doesnt really matter. Read this book however you like, take from it whatever you like, but enjoy it, because its a fun book that I believe will improve your general health and wellbeing, and most probably make you happier!

You might be thinking, All right, Art, Ill take a look. But, before I go any further, I want to know why should I listen to you and be taking your advice?

Yep, good point. I had a feeling you might ask that, so I thought it would be a good idea to give you a brief background of my education and experiences, and how they led to me adopting a paleo lifestyle and becoming involved in my business, CleanPaleo. Hopefully this will give you an understanding of where Im coming from, and why I think I can help you to lead a healthy lifestyle.

I was born in Hunterville in the Rangitikei and grew up on a small farm outside of Martinborough in the Wairarapa. Dad worked on the land, and Mum looked after me and my older sister. It was a really cool way to grow up we didnt have a TV until after Id started school, and I just used to spend all my time running around outside. Mum had her vege garden and my parents used to see how much we could live off the land, growing most of our fruit and veges, eating home-kill meat, getting eggs from the chooks and milk from the cow. Mum baked bread and we were all involved in doing stuff around the farm.

My parents split up when I was seven, and my sister and I moved to Wellington with Mum. Mum went back to uni and retrained in information technology, then we moved to Christchurch, where I went to Burnside High.

I was a really sporty kid at primary and high school. I was into athletics, rugby and cricket, and at high school concentrated on the javelin (I was looking for a sport where I didnt have to do any running at that time I hated running, though I love it now).

My sister and I still spent a lot of time with Dad, and I think thats where I got my sporty genes from. Dad was always really fit and into exercise, and played representative rugby when he was younger. When I was growing up, he always had time to run around or throw a ball with me. For as long as I can remember, hes always had a home gym in the shed, built out of a few beer crates and weights made from tractor axles and drench containers! I used to go in there when I was a kid and watch him and try to work out myself, using tin cans. Hes still got a home gym he might have had to replace the odd crate, but exercise is still an important part of his lifestyle.

So I guess I grew up thinking these two things were really important for a healthy life: good-quality, natural food and regular exercise. Its the way that ideally we would all live as close to nature as possible though its harder to do once you live a busy life in a city. But it was a great way to have grown up, and its stayed with me and had a big influence on my decision to adopt a paleo lifestyle.

Once I finished school I decided to go to uni at Otago, to study exercise and sports science at the School of Physical Education. Because of my sport, I was really interested in how the body works, and Id really enjoyed PE at high school. It was a great degree and I learnt a lot about anatomy, physiology, nutrition, psychology and the many benefits of exercise. I look back at my time at Otago as four of the best years of my life (so far!). I made some incredible friends, had a lot of fun and even found time to study.

After uni I tried a few different jobs, but hadnt really found something I wanted to do, when I got offered a job running a gym at a mining settlement in the Pilbara, a region of outback Western Australia. It was good money, and I felt it was somewhere I could actually use my degree. I could call on what Id learnt about exercise physiology and put it into practice even though it was in the middle of nowhere.