A Tree-Climbing Modern-Caveman's Secrets To Living Ancestrally In A Modern World.

Ben Greenfield (0:01)

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show.

Tony Federico (0:04)

For my phone, I don't ever have the ringer on, I kind of keep it on vibrate. I notice within myself, and you may have a similar experience, but I can perceive stress in my body pretty well. I know when I kind of flip that fight or flight switch, you know, you can kind of feel yourself getting a little jacked up, and I notice every time the phone rings, ah, gotta get to the phone, a little bit of fight or flight. Let's say you're getting the correct wavelength of light exposure, you know, blue light during the day, and maybe orange or yellow, as you kind of get along a little bit later. So you're doing those kind of big checklist items. I think we're gonna start to get more and more into the role of electromagnetic radiation in health.

SPEAKER_3 (0:36)

He's an expert in human performance and nutrition.

Voted America's top personal trainer and one of the globe's most influential people in health and fitness. His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.

Ben Greenfield (0:54)

Power.

Balance. Whatever it is for you that's the natural movement. When you look at all the studies done, studies that have shown the greatest efficacy.

SPEAKER_3 (1:11)

All the information you need in one place, right here, right now, on the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.

Ben Greenfield (1:33)

Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield, and I have a photo in the show notes for today's episode, which you can check out over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/tony. That's bengreenfieldfitness.com/t-o-n-y.

And there's a guy in the photo, he's climbing a tree, kind of like an ancient ape with his arms and legs wrapped around the tree, and his name is Tony Federico. He's actually my guest on today's show. He's one of the leaders of the paleo movement. I met him a few years ago at the Paleo FX Conference. He does a lot in that community, like he hosts the Paleo Magazine radio podcast. He's the editor of Paleo Fitness Magazine. He's the author of a book called A Modern Caveman's Guide to Cooking with Fire. And he's also a full-time personal trainer. He's been working in the fitness industry for over a decade.

Now, Tony and I today are going to be talking about little-known ways that you actually can live in a more ancestral way, even if you're in a modern world. And as a good point to jump into, I just found out that Tony finished moving into his house, and in the process of moving into a new place, has a bunch of new-fangled things hanging around his office. So Tony, I want to dive into that stuff, but first, welcome to today's show.

Tony Federico (2:55)

Yeah, thanks for having me, man. It's my pleasure.

Ben Greenfield (2:58)

So I know that you and I have some similar interests when it comes to living in Cesare. Just before we started recording, I had recorded a podcast episode just prior to this and took a break to go hang from the monkey bars in my little gym next door and just swing back and forth and release some tension in the fingertips, open up the arms, decompress the back, and do all those things to fight against staring at a computer screen and a microphone for an hour.

Tony Federico (3:27)

Not paleo.

Ben Greenfield (3:28)

Yeah, exactly. Well, one part of it isn't quite paleo, and the other part is the swinging from the monkey bars.

So I don't necessarily think everybody needs to be climbing up into trees to collect their own coconuts barefoot, but I am curious, when you move into a new house and you're unpacking all these boxes, what some of the things are that are scattered around your office that you're using?

Tony Federico (3:52)

Oh man, the whole thing about moving, it's such an interesting process. And I think it does speak to something deeply rooted in our evolution, our desire to make a home, make a nest, make a place. And going from one place to another, there's that transition zone where you don't have a home. And that is kind of where we've been living in that place for the past couple of weeks between our apartment and where we are now, which is an actual house. We were upgraded a little bit, got a little bit more space. And this past weekend, as I mentioned before, is the great unboxing. And finally, getting some stuff set up and making this place our own.

One of the first things that I did, obviously the kitchen, number one, you got to eat in the bed. Number two, you got to sleep. But number three was getting my office set up. And the way that I have my office set up, and I can send you a picture of this as well, it's about as minimalist as I can go. It's a stand up desk that I got from wayfair.com. And I don't remember the exact name of it, but it only has the stand option, so it's very affordable.