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Eating healthy and additive-free consistently can be extremely challenging, especially for people who love to eat their favourite foods. But what if there was a way to comfort yourself with pizzas and cookies without damaging your body and breaking your diet? Wouldn’t that be the dream?
In this episode, we will discuss Primal Alternative, and how Helen Marshall went from surviving to thriving by ditching gluten and eating healthier.
Meet Helen Marshall
Helen’s mission is to empower people to be accountable to their purpose with a new business model of freedom – the Primalista Licence.
The model was born from a desire to share a successful grain-free food business model. As a health coach, Helen saw first-hand how people ‘fell off the wagon’ as they missed comfort food staples like bread, pizza, pastries and cookies. So she created nourishing alternatives to the foods everyone loves and they literally sold like hot cakes.
Helen gets the struggles many face finding a vocation that aligns with their values. She packaged everything she’d learnt about creating a food business from home whilst on a healing journey, raising a family and designing a lifestyle around the things she loves.
The Primalista Licence meets the needs of many people in all areas of their lives: vocational, financial, mental, spiritual, social, physical & familial. To date over 300 Primalistas have joined Primal Alternative in Australia, New Zealand, USA & UK.
Before ditching the rat race, she was a Fitness Instructor and Personal trainer then a Business Manager for a leading recruitment company in the city. Helen has interviewed people all of her life listening to their desires around health, work and lifestyle and has combined those skills to bring her greatest contribution yet – the Primalista Licence.
Helen lives on 100 acres of wilderness in Albany, WA with her husband Mike and their teenage children Sam & Milly. She likes Body Balance, Body Step + Body Pump, massage, coffee with her bestie, sunbathing, meditation, walks in nature and champagne in the spa.
How Primal Alternative Started?
Primal Alternative was a product of the evolution of Helen’s health journey after she was struggling with health issues including sickness, exhaustion, anxiety, disturbed sleep, digestive issues and more.
As a gym instructor, she always had this notion that counting calories was all that mattered. But during her transformation, she discovered that the quality of calories mattered.
She qualified as a Primal Health Coach, with the intention to help others who were suffering the same problems as her.
With their dietary lifestyle, Helen and her family agreed that it would only be sustainable if they could still eat the foods they love. In this case, it was cookies… which prompted her to take their favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe and replace all the ingredients with organic ones as an experiment. To her surprise, it turned out better!
Soon after, she started experimenting with other foods like pizza, bread, and gummies to fill dietary gaps. These healthy homemade alternatives gained popularity among family members and health coaching clients alike. Eventually, local businesses, such as pizza shops, were reaching out to her.
Primalistas
Helen recognized the struggle of many women in finding work that accommodates family life, along with a growing awareness of healthy eating. Because of this, she wanted to share her knowledge to help these women. This led her to create a model that allowed women to start their own home cooking business, becoming what she calls a Primalista. This not only spread Helen’s healthy food philosophy but also empowered other women to be part of the health solution and manage their own businesses.
Now, over 300 women have joined the movement, mainly in Australia but with some presence in New Zealand, the UK, and the US. These women operate as local home cooks, receiving support in business setup, compliance, and labelling, forming a network that promotes health and wellness.
The challenges of producing healthy foods
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand recently implemented stricter regulations on food labelling to prevent false or misleading claims. Terms like “dairy-free,” “nut-free,” and “gluten-free” are now heavily regulated and require justification and proof on the label. This overhaul necessitated costly changes to labels for many businesses.
However, the biggest challenge lies in combating misleading marketing tactics, particularly from large food companies. Small, honest food producers, like those at farmer’s markets, strive to offer genuine products, contrasting with the greenwashing and false advertising prevalent in the industry.
What is The Primal Diet?
The primal diet is mostly like the paleo, ancestral, or Western style of eating that focuses on consuming foods that our ancestors thrived on before fast food and processed items even started.
This includes meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and fats, all sourced from the earth. The emphasis is on quality protein like grass-fed meats and wild-caught fish, including a variety of animal parts such as organ meats for their nutritional value. While some may find the idea of consuming organ meats unappealing, they can be easily incorporated into dishes or consumed in powdered form without altering the taste significantly.
It’s also about returning to traditional food practices that involve incorporating fermented foods and utilising bones to make meat stocks. Fermentation, such as with cabbage, enhances both the nutritional value and flavour of foods while providing beneficial bacteria for gut health.
Meat stocks, made from boiling meat carcasses, offer a shorter cooking time compared to broths and can be used in various recipes for added richness and nutrients. This shift away from processed stock cubes, which are laden with additives and MSG, towards homemade stocks reflects a return to healthier culinary practices of the past.
What a Primal Diet looks like?
Helen provides us with some examples of what they normally eat during a regular day.
Breakfast
- Bacon and eggs, served with veggies, both fermented and not.
- Boiled beetroot in apple cider vinegar as a bit of a condiment/side serve is beneficial for low stomach acid and liver detoxification.
- For quicker mornings, a slice of grain-free toast or a quick smoothie made with kefir, fruit, and honey.
- Pancakes, matched with 24-hour fermented yoghurt. This yoghurt is rich in beneficial bacteria and has minimal lactose, making it easier for those with dairy intolerance to digest.
Lunch
- Focus on meat and vegetables. Cooled rice cooked nights before is filled with resistant starch which is great for gut health.
- Primal alternative chocolate chip cookies, some fruit and seaweed for iodine.
Dinner
- Chicken skewers with a tasty satay sauce and a side salad is a good choice. Together with new season potatoes seasoned with sea salt and organic butter.
Helen’s family enjoys a variety of grain-free options like lasagnas, pizzas, and fajitas, and she highlights grain-free granola as a convenient breakfast choice. Overall, her approach focuses on nutritious, whole foods that cater to her family’s dietary preferences.
Conclusion
Primal living involves not just eating real and additive-free food but also embracing a holistic lifestyle. This includes prioritizing sleep quality, spending time outdoors in nature, nurturing relationships, and finding purpose in daily activities rather than just waiting for the weekend.
Ready to take a step towards a healthier life? Primal Alternative offers a range of products to suit everyone’s dietary needs, and if you’re keen to be a part of this movement, there’s always room for more Primalistas!
Where can you find out more about Primal Alternative
To access all that Helen has to offer, check out Primal Alternative via the links below:
👉🏻 Website
👉🏻 Facebook
👉🏻 Instagram
👉🏻 YouTube
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Much love,
Jo & Tracey x
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