Mark’s Daily Apple turns 16 today. I guess we could say it’s officially “come of age.” It was the platform that launched the primal mission, and I couldn’t have spread the word without it — and without you, my dedicated readers, of course. So let’s get a little reminiscent, shall we? After all, that’s what birthdays are for. 

Many of you are familiar with my personal journey. A career as an endurance athlete left me sick and injured, making me acutely aware that the standard health and nutrition advice I’d been following was misguided at best and destructive at worst. I’ve always loved challenging my brain as much as I do my body, so I dug into all the science available and began experimenting with a more evolutionary approach to food and fitness. I noticed the benefits right away and wanted to document my journey and help other people reclaim their health as well. I started Mark’s Daily Apple for that very reason, with a measurable goal in mind — to change the lives of 10 million people.

I soon discovered just how many people out there are sick of being failed by mainstream dietary and fitness advice. Visits to Mark’s Daily Apple skyrocketed as more people found their way to the blog, many of whom encouraged me to consolidate my research and way of life — which I call the primal lifestyle — in a book. And so I did.

The Primal Blueprint became an unlikely bestseller, and I followed that up with many other books, including my most recent, The Keto Reset Diet and Two Meals a Day, all while blogging on Mark’s Daily Apple. 

Time passed, and I continued researching and investigating what it means to live primally, sharing my findings with you here. I also hosted in-person retreats and seminars and developed specialized online courses like the 21-Day Primal Reset Course. But I wanted to do more. I wanted to develop a program for those that desired to go beyond the blog and books and take an even deeper dive into the primal lifestyle. 

So the primal mission took another leap and I created the Primal Blueprint Expert Certification program in 2014. It was an incredibly comprehensive exploration of ancestral health — on par with a college-level science course. It was for the primal enthusiast who wanted to become an expert for their own edification, but we soon discovered that the majority of people enrolling in the course had professional aspirations. They were either already a health or fitness professional or wanted to become one. With this discovery, I knew there was an opportunity to take the primal mission even further. 

So I founded Primal Health Coach Institute to train other people in primal health and, with their help, change the lives of 100 million people around the world. 

Primal Health Coach Institute is, in a sense, the culmination of my collective efforts to share the primal message and help people reclaim their health and wellness. I’ve gone from writing about ancestral health through daily articles on this blog to training people to become health and fitness coaches so they can go out and spread the word. And the compounding network effect has been powerful. 

In addition to the Primal Health Coach Certification program, we’ve developed the Primal Fitness Coach Certification, coaching and business development courses, and continuing education programs, including strength training for women and health coaching in medical practices. 

I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with Primal Health Coach Institute. It’s not just an online platform that lets you take your pick of coaching courses. We’ve nurtured a tight community of coaches around the world. And we make sure they have the resources they need to launch and run a successful practice, so we can keep changing lives, one person and one coach at a time. 

We’ve also spun off other endeavors, like myPrimalCoach, which matches users with their very own health coach through a convenient app. You’d better believe once we reach 100 million people, we’re going even bigger. And I know we can do it with everything Primal Health Coach Institute has in the works.

So happy birthday to the blog that started it all and continues to have a massive impact on the world. It’s certainly had a huge impact on mine.

About the Author

Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.

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