Why am I writing this article? Simply to share my story in the hope it can help others.
I’ve been there. I’ve experienced life’s ups and downs and faced my share of adversity.
For 26 years, I have put my wife, my kids, my career and my business first. Most of what I’ve built wouldn’t exist without those sacrifices, and I have no regrets. I’m proud of my choices.
That didn’t stop me, however, from having the same conversation with myself, on repeat, for years.
“It’ll be fine, I’ll exercise later, I’ve just got to finish this job…”
“I’m tired tonight, I’ll just have dinner instead…”
Sound familiar? Most of my mates know this feeling — juggling responsibilities, knowing they should look after themselves, but not sure where to start. Add a few old injuries and movement habits that no longer serve, and self-care slides to the bottom of the list.
The Shift
For me, the turning point wasn’t a diet or a training plan. It was a change in mindset, and it happened once I hit rock bottom.
In 2021, after twenty years of on-and-off back pain from a bulging disc, things got serious. A third of the disc came away from the spine and pressed permanently on a nerve down my right leg. I was bed-ridden in agony for three weeks on strong medication that barely gave any relief. Thankfully my surgery was a success, and I was finally pain-free.
My surgeon had given me a second chance. I’d always done Contrology Pilates, so I went straight back to the studio — and the results have been life changing.
Joseph Pilates believed we’re animals at our core, and that we should move like animals. That’s where the real shift happened. The way I moved in my 20s and 30s no longer served me. I needed a routine built for fitness, strength, mobility, agility and balance — one that would serve me well into the next stage of life.
That one shift changed my life, and I love that my wife and kids also benefit.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Alongside this shift, I wanted to stop feeling bloated. So I started fasting daily and cutting carbs, eating only when my stomach growled. No apps, no programs, just a simple shift in consumption. Stop tipping things in.
Then I thought: what did the hunter-gatherers do? They went without food for stretches, found a good feed, ate well, then kept moving. Maybe I’d just been eating too much, too often.
That question sent me down a rabbit hole.
It’s how I found Mark Sisson, one of the founders of the ancestral health movement. His idea is simple: we’re built the same way our ancestors were, so let’s live more like they did. In his book The Primal Blueprint, he lists ten simple rules for better health: eat plants and animals, avoid poisonous things, move often at a slow pace, lift heavy things, sprint sometimes, sleep well, play, get sunlight, avoid silly mistakes, and use your brain. Mark is one of the fittest 71 year old men on the planet.
This isn’t a fad, either. It traces back to a 1985 paper by anthropologist S. Boyd Eaton, arguing our bodies are still built for an older way of life. Researcher Loren Cordain took the idea further, spending his career studying it and writing The Paleo Diet. More recently, Duke researcher Herman Pontzer studied a hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania and found they don’t burn much more energy than we do, despite walking for kilometres each day — suggesting our bodies aren’t craving more exercise so much as a different rhythm.
It was solid research I’d never come across, and reading it felt so simple and logical.
What Changed
My own journey has largely followed this path, and the results have been simply phenomenal. Since my back operation, I’ve:
- Eliminated my bloating feeling and lost 25% of my body weight as a by-product of embracing this ancestral philosophy and becoming metabolically flexible. My aim was simply to feel better.
- Embraced ancestral movement — walking, lifting heavy, regular Pilates classes, both contrology and hot strength. This routine works my entire body including joints, bones and muscles, builds strength and cardio and is very much aligned with the critical fitness objectives for middle aged men as they look to physically prepare themselves for the second stage of their lives, all while being enjoyable and reducing the chances of any major injuries.
- Consistently cold plunged daily
- Cut back on alcohol
- Achieved a completely pain-free life, with zero medication or supplements
- Achieved a level of daily energy far beyond what I was used to
- Eliminated my previous skin irritation issues
- Avoided colds and flu for 3 years.
- Achieved a fitness level in the top 5% of 46 year old men based on metrics including cardio, strength, mobility and agility.
- Never felt better. Ever.
It’s never been about numbers and I’ve never worn a wearable. I avoid tech. I'm old school. Instead, I have learnt to choose better types of movement, listen to my body, calm my nervous system, use the power of my breath, do what feels good and have fun. My routine is enjoyable, consistent and sustainable, resulting in a body that remains useful, strong, resilient and adaptable.
Why We Built Lon This Way
This is where the Lon philosophy comes from. It’s no coincidence Lon feels the way it does — quiet, unhurried, close to the earth. It’s built on everything I learned the hard way.
We sit on 250 acres of rural land above the ocean at Point Lonsdale. Every part of the experience is built around the same simple cues our bodies have always responded to: mineral water from springs beneath the farm, hot pools and cold plunges, the ground underfoot instead of a treadmill, a fire instead of a screen, and stars overhead.
None of it is dressed up as luxury for its own sake. It’s there because these are the things our bodies and minds are quietly missing in a fast-paced world we were never really built for.
Lon is more than a wellness destination to me. It's an ancestral health experience -a place to remember what your body has always known how to do, if you just go back to basics and keep to simple.
