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When I started training clients, I thought I knew it all, and I would strut around the gym floor like a peacock, willing to assert my superior gym knowledge. When in fact, looking back, I knew absolutely nothing.
This attitude hurt more than helped me, and this was the first of many mistakes I made at the beginning of my career.
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Hey folks! This week, PHCI’s curriculum director, Erin Power is answering your questions about cheat days, how to handle hunger during intermittent fasting, and the best thing to do when you get the chills. Keep asking your questions over in the Mark’s Daily Apple Facebook group or post them in the comments below.
John asked:
“I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for a few months and it’s working well, but I get hungry after 14 hours or so. Wondering if it’s best to try to muscle through the hunger when I feel it kick in or should I just eat?”
There are several different ways to practice intermittent fasting and they all have proven disease-fighting and anti-agent benefits.1 There’s the popular 12:12, 16:8, 18:6, and 20:4 methods, alternate day fasting, multi-day fasting, and really any way you can slice a period of time. The best way to figure out which method is right for you though, is to experiment.
A longer fast may have worked for you in the past, but the human body is a miraculous and adaptable organism. What felt great at one point might not be in your best interest now. And if you’re feeling tempted to push yourself to resist eating for a few extra hours, thinking more is better, let me remind you that there’s no award given to the person who can fast the longest. You’re also not going to have your IF card pulled if you decide to eat outside your original window.
Everything about our culture seems to discourage us from listening to what our bodies are telling us. We somehow believe that other people know us better than we do.
Listen, if something isn’t working, my body will tell me, and I trust that. I try to teach my clients the same thing: to trust the signals they get from within; rather than relying on what a scientific paper, influencer, or so-called-expert tells them is going to prolong their life or bestow them with optimal health.
So, instead of pushing through the pain (or hunger in your case), what if you took that hunger as a sign? What if you honored your body by listening to your grumbling stomach and sluggish energy levels and gave it the fuel it was asking for?
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As I mentioned, I’m a huge fan of listening to my body. If I’m hungry, I eat. I don’t starve myself or battle hunger pangs just because I’m following a program that generally says I should. That being said, you might want to ask yourself if you’re really hungry or if something else is at play.
Does your hunger kick in when you feel stressed at work? You’re trying to avoid a task? Or when you feel bored? Or is it that it’s been 14 hours and your body is ready for fuel? Only you know the answer and once you start to really listen to your body, you won’t have to second guess whether or not it’s time to eat.
Julie asked:
“Someone said they were having a “carb cheat day” for Menu Monday over on the Keto Reset Facebook page. Can you explain how a carb cheat day even works?”
There is some research to support having a “carb refeed” for those who have their insulin sensitivity dialed in, or who perform high intensity exercise on a regular basis – especially for women. But declaring a whole day a cheat day, in my opinion, is an excuse for allowing poor nutrition and lifestyle choices on a regular basis.
The whole concept of a cheat day just doesn’t sit right with me. And when you throw the term “carbs” into that phrase, it really lights me up.
Carbs come in a lot of forms, everything from tangerines and turnips to Twinkies. And, as a reminder, foods aren’t good or bad. They just have consequences. Eating a steady diet of processed foods will likely put you on the fast-track to disease, while eating a piece of fruit or a root veggie is called balance.
Depending on what this person’s take on carbs are, they could be binging on highly processed, nutritionally void food under the umbrella of a “cheat day,” feeling justified because they believe they deserve to have a 24-hour period of indulging as a reward for their dialed-in diet the rest of the week.
So, to answer your question, a carb cheat day could look like a big bowl oatmeal and fruit, followed by grilled sweet potatoes and squares of dark chocolate. Or it could look like pastries, pizzas, and beer on repeat.
I think the bigger question is, why does a person need a cheat day? I typically avoid using that term because it reinforces the diet culture mentality that what you’re doing the rest of the time involves suffering or deprivation in some way. That you’ve got to ignore all your body’s cues 6 days a week in order to reach your goals. Which is total BS in my opinion. White knuckling all week long can and will lead to some kind of consequence, trust me.
Personally, I’m a live-in-the-moment person and believe that life is nothing without treating yourself. But treats should be indulged in on occasion, instead of dedicating a whole day of derailment just to get your fix. I’d rather see someone with a healthy and balanced mindset so that “cheating” isn’t even on the table.
Andrew asked:
“From a primal perspective, when you get chills with a fever, is it better to listen to your body and seek warmth or does it make sense to go the opposite way and immerse yourself in cold temps to trigger an adaptation in immune system function?”
There are some pros to allowing your body to adapt, but in general, I’d take your chills as a sign that you should take steps to warm yourself up.2 Any time your body is fighting something off, it responds by increasing your body temperature. Submerge yourself in an ice bath or take a cold shower and you’re causing your body to work harder than it needs to.
I find it interesting that even if we feel awful and have limited energy, we believe that pushing ourselves is the answer. Feel cold? Let’s tough it out. Tired? You should probably fight the urge to sleep. Hungry? Go ahead and starve yourself for another hour or two.
It’s ridiculous how much people ignore their internal signs. Like it somehow makes you weak to “give in” to the sensations you’re feeling in your body. But blocking these sensations or convincing yourself to suffer through them is a learned behaviour. And it’s something that can be unlearned.
What would happen if you allowed yourself to notice what’s going on in your body and take action on it? Life isn’t meant to be a suffer-fest. It doesn’t make you less bad ass to be in touch with your feelings. And it doesn’t make you less primal to grab a warm blanket when you’ve got the chills.
Practice listening to your body and see what happens. You might be really surprised by what it’s telling you.
Are you team ‘listen to your body’ or are you more used to ignoring your internal cues?
The post Ask a Health Coach: What’s Your Body Trying to Tell You? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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Coffee sometimes gets a bad rap; however, organic coffee is loaded with helpful antioxidants, and the caffeine it contains is quite useful as well. Not only is it good to drink, but it is also great for your skin, the body’s largest organ. Incorporating coffee into your diet and your personal care routine is a […]
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June looms. Summer is almost upon us. The sun’s out, people are starting to gather and mingle, the big box stores are stocking charcoal again, and those chicken drumsticks, that tri tip, that lamb leg, and that salmon filet behind the butcher counter are looking good. You feel the pull of the grill. It calls to you. You need to respond—but how to do it?
Not everyone is a grill master. With baking and traditional recipes, you can follow along just by reading. Oven temperatures and controlled gas ranges make cooking indoors fairly predictable. But outside, out on the grill, things get a little wild.
Grilling is more art than science. It’s about feeling the meat, sensing the heat, intuiting what’s happening beneath and above the grill. The wind, the coals, the flame, the air flow, the ambient temperature all affect and determine the quality of the finished product. It’s all too much to plug into a spreadsheet and figure out down to the millisecond. There are no guarantees. So while I’m going to give you the best methods I’ve learned over the years, don’t take this as settled science. You’re going to have to experiment for yourself.
Today I’ll go over the most frequently asked questions I see about grilling.
When you grill, you want areas of high, medium, and low heat accessible at all times. This gives you the ability to modulate the amount of heat your food receives and it gives you more flexibility when cooking. Whether you’re using coals or gas, you can determine the temperature ranges by using feel—actually feeling the heat with your hands. If you can keep your hand a couple inches off the grill only for under a second before it gets too hot, that’s high heat. If you can keep your hand there for 2 seconds, that’s medium heat. If you can keep your hand there for 3-5 seconds, that’s low heat.
You can use an instant read digital thermometer inserted into the thickest part of whatever you’re grilling. This is more precise and it’s a good way to develop your intuition if you pair it with learning by feel. This is a good one that’s served me well.
You can also determine doneness by touching your meat, by prodding it, by poking it, by squeezing it. With enough time and trial by error (and using the thermometer to confirm), you can eventually figure out if the meat is ready by how it responds to your manual manipulation, but in general:
Rare is squishy.
Medium-rare is spongy.
Medium-well is firm.
Whatever you do, err on the side of taking it off the heat early. You can always add more cooking time if it’s undercooked, but you can’t take it away.
Some people like to complicate the burger. They include exotic spices, incorporate cheese or grilled onions into the meat itself, and pre-form them. For my money, the best way to grill a burger is to pack about 1/4-1/2 pound burger meat loosely together right before you throw them on the grill—packed enough that it stays together but not so tight that it becomes a brick. Don’t mix salt into the burger meat, because that will alter the structure of the meat and give it a sausage texture.
Season it heavily with kosher salt and black pepper on both sides and grill over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes per side. Then flip again and grill for 1 minute on each side, turning the burger 90 degrees so you get grill cross marks. Move burger off to the side to finish cooking on indirect or low heat for another few minutes, adding cheese to melt at this point if you are so inclined.
To grill a thick steak like a ribeye, a NY strip, a porterhouse, or a filet mignon, you’ll need to use a combination of high heat and low heat. First, season all sides, including the edges, with kosher salt and pepper. Be generous. Then, rub a little olive or avocado oil all over the meat and place on a pre-heated grill over high heat for 2 minutes. Flip and grill another 2 minutes. Flip again, turning the meat 90 degrees to get the hash grill marks. Flip again after a minute, again turning the meat to get the hash marks. After a minute, move the steak off the coals/flame to cook indirectly for another 2-4 minutes with the cover on, flipping midway through and making sure any fat caps are pointed toward the heat source. Gotta render that down.
Adjust time depending on thickness, of course. These are just guidelines and ranges.
If you prefer, you can begin with indirect heat and finish with high heat. Both work great.
You can also smear Primal Kitchen mayo all over your salted-and-peppered steak instead of oil before applying high heat. Gives a great crust.
After it’s off the grill, let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing into it. And always slice against the grain.
To grill a thinner steak like skirt, flap, flat iron, hanger, or flank, you’ll want to stick to medium-high heat. Add kosher salt and pepper and any other seasonings you want (or marinade 12-24 hours before, as thinner steaks do great with marinades), spray or drizzle olive or avocado oil, and toss it on the grill over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes per side. Place on indirect or low heat to finish.
Make sure you let the steak rest for 5 minutes and cut against the grain.
Season your salmon on both sides, spray it down or drizzle with olive or avocado oil, and place it skin-side down on a heated grill over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. When the meat-side facing up begins to dry out and you can see the cooked portion of the meat inch up along the side toward the midpoint of the filet, flip it over and grill for another 2 minutes. Move off the heat to finish indirectly.
I can’t recommend grilling salmon directly on the grill without the skin because it always sticks to the grill. I’ve never found a good replacement. What you can do is place the salmon on a cedar plank and cook it for 20-30 minutes. This is a slower, gentler cook.
Because salmon is so varied in thickness and fat content, it’s hard to give one number that encompasses every piece of salmon. What works best is what not to do. If you get the white stuff forming on the meat, you’ve gone too long. Take it off before the white stuff happens.
To grill chicken breast, season it well, drizzle it with olive oil, and grill it until well-browned on all sides (about 3 minutes per side), then move to indirect heat, cover the grill, and let it cook until done.
An alternative method is to smash the chicken breast flat with a meat mallet, season it, and grill it over medium high heat for 10 minutes. Much quicker this way.
Recipe to try: Devyn’s Grilled Marinated Chicken
Confirm that it’s done with a digital thermometer or by feel (if you’re confident in your intuition). Conventional wisdom says chicken breast must reach 165°F to be safe, but you can take it off at 157° and let it rest for 10 minutes. Residual heat will cause the internal temp to rise to a safe level and you won’t dry out your breasts.
Bone-in breast will take longer to cook, but it will also be juicier since the bone protects the meat from drying out.
Chicken thighs are more forgiving than chicken breast. All that collagen and connective tissue and fat keep the meat moist, even at higher temperatures and longer cooking times. But if you want to realize the thigh’s potential and enjoy mouth-watering, unctuous meat ribboned with melting collagen, you need to cook it long enough to break down all that connective tissue.
A chicken thigh can get by with just salt and pepper—or maybe a citrus-based marinade. Medium heat is ideal, about 8 minutes per side, and then another 5-8 minutes over indirect heat. As long as you keep it from burning, it will stay moist and juicy.
To grill a whole chicken, you have to spatchcock the bird: remove the back bone, lay the bird out flat, and press down hard on the breasts until you hear a pop. Then season it with kosher salt and pepper (and other spices, if you desire, like paprika, garlic, and turmeric) all over, rub some avocado oil on, and place it skin side up on the grill. If you’re cooking with charcoal, pile up the charcoal over to one side and put the bird on the opposite end with the drumsticks closest to the coals. If you’re cooking with gas, leave half of the grill unlit and fire up the other half, putting the bird on the unlit half with its legs pointing toward the flames. Cover.
After about an hour, check the chicken. Grab the drumsticks and jiggle the legs. If they’re breaking free and the juice runs clear, the connective tissue has broken down and you’re almost done. Take the chicken and flip it over, skin side down, directly over the coals, for 5 minutes. Then it’s done.
The pork chop is an underrated cut. Even by me. I always forget to get pork chops, they always slip my mind, but I’m always happy when I do remember. Some salt, some pepper, some avocado oil, medium high heat, time is all you need for a great grilled pork chop. The charred fat cap is really tough to beat.
I treat grilled pork chops like steak. I sear for two minutes, flip and sear for two minutes, flip (turning 90 degrees to get the good grill marks) and sear for 1 minute, flip (turning 90 degrees) and sear for 1 minute. Then move off to the side to finish cooking over indirect heat.
With pork, you want to use a thermometer to determine how long to grill it. If I’m eating quality pork, ideally pasture-raised, I’ll serve it medium. That means I pull it at 130-135° and then letting it continue warming up a bit more. There will be a light pink tinge running through the meat and plenty of juice.
You can’t really grill baby back or spare ribs from start to finish like steaks if you’re looking for that fall-off-the-bone texture. It takes a long time. You need to start with indirect low heat for 2 to 2 and a half hours. Season your ribs, paint them with sauce if you prefer, place bone side down on the grill, cover the grill, and cook them on low until they slide off the bone easily.
Another way to do it is to pre-cook your ribs in the oven, on the stove, or in the pressure cooker. Use a mixture of water, broth, vinegar, and sauce and various other seasonings and braise/boil/pressure cook the ribs until they’re tender. Refrigerate them until you’re ready to grill, then add more sauce to the ribs and quickly grill them over medium high heat on both sides until warmed through and seared.
These methods work for beef ribs, too, but you’ll need more time to get them tender.
Shrimp grill up real quick—almost too quick. If you grill them long enough to develop the Maillard reaction, they often overcook and turn rubbery. Here’s how you overcome it:
Finish with salt and lemon juice.
Trim your asparagus and toss it in a large bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper until completely coated. Place on the grill perpendicular to the grates over medium heat. When you see grill lines form, roll the asparagus 90 degrees. Continue this until there are prominent grill lines encircling the entire stalk of asparagus. Remove from heat and squeeze half a lemon over the asparagus. Serve with lemon juice whisked into mayo on the side for dipping.
While this isn’t an exhaustive list of everything there is to grill, it covers just about all the things you’ll want to grill on a regular basis. Leave me your thoughts down below and let me know what you love to grill and how to do it.
Take care, everyone.
The post How to Grill Everything – the Ultimate Guide appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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The beauty of microworkouts is that you can do them virtually anywhere with minimal time investment, and the cumulative training effect really adds up… if you remember to do them.
To be successful with microworkouts, or any form of exercise, consistency is key. Not rigidity—we’re not big fans of rigidly adhering to a strict exercise schedule here—but you need to put in the time and effort. Workouts that don’t happen don’t change you. Unlike going to the gym or taking a Crossfit class, which you might schedule into your busy calendar, microworkouts are meant to be sprinkled throughout your day. Unfortunately, that makes microworkouts all too easy to forget or push off, until you get to dinnertime and realize you’ve barely moved your body all day.
If this sounds familiar, it’s time to get some systems in place to make microworkouts a built-in part of your day. This is a roundabout way of saying: you need to make microworkouts a habit.
Habits are behaviors that have become so automatic that you do them with little to no conscious effort. Locking in new habits is no easy feat, though. We’ve all experienced the ups and downs of trying to make new healthy habits stick.
However, the process of habit change is actually quite simple when you break it down. When you’re trying to establish a new habit, you need:
Today, we’re focusing on the first: cues that remind you to do your microworkouts. Specifically, we’re leveraging a trick called habit stacking.
With habit stacking, you use behaviors you already do automatically as cues to do the new desired behaviors. In this case, it means pairing everyday behaviors like brushing your teeth, making coffee, or walking out the front door with specific exercises like push-ups or going for a walk. Don’t worry, this will become self-explanatory shortly.
Microworkouts are short bursts of movement that you insert into your day. We’ve been tricked into thinking that the best, or only, way to be fit and healthy is to spend 90 minutes at the gym pushing plates or huffing and puffing through a 50-minute cardio kickboxing class. Not so. While athletes with specialized aims—run a marathon, deadlift twice their bodyweight—need to do specific workouts tailored to their goals, for general wellness, smaller efforts really do add up. You can log a very respectable amount of movement via short workouts lasting as little as 20 or 30 seconds, up to a few minutes, when you do them throughout the day.
Almost anything can count as a microworkout, as long as you’re moving. Microworkouts can encompass HIIT or Tabata-type activities; resistance exercises using bodyweight, exercise bands, free weights, TRX straps, or any other equipment you have on hand; or aerobic activities like going for a short walk.
Don’t overthink it. Any (quick) activity that builds muscular strength or endurance, cardiovascular fitness, even balance or flexibility falls under the microworkout umbrella. Ideally, you want to incorporate a range of movements that engage different muscle groups.
Below are 25 ideas for using habit stacking to facilitate microworkouts. Use these as inspiration, but feel free to mix and match them to suit your life.
One safety note, first: Use appropriate caution when transitioning from sitting or lying down to exercising. You may want to perform a light warm-up movement first, especially before exercises involving heavy weights or a large range of motion. Check out the section entitled “How To Incorporate Microworkouts” in Mark’s earlier post here for more details.
Wake up + do some dynamic stretching
Brush teeth + gentle leg raises
Brew first morning coffee or tea + sun salutation
Turn on computer + tech neck exercises
Check your calendar or to-do list+ jump squats*
Open social media app + mountain climbers*
End a Zoom meeting + walk to the end of the driveway and back, or take a lap around your building
Hang up a phone call + triceps dips*
Close a browser window + biceps curls
Refill your water + kettlebell swings*
Refill your coffee or tea + incline pushups against the edge of the counter
Start the microwave + run in place
Run the blender + hold a plank
Finish lunch + Mark’s road warrior workout
Use the bathroom + pull-ups (or one of these alternatives if you don’t have a bar)
Go up stairs + calf raises on the bottom step
Walk out the front door + jump squats*
Run the vacuum + alternating lunges*
Folding laundry + V-sits*
While watching TV, food commercial = flutter kicks*
Pharmaceutical commercial = glute bridges*
Insurance commercial = elbow-to-knee side planks*
Car commercial = burpees*
All other commercials = Grok squat hold
Brush teeth at night + wall sit*
*These exercises are described in A to Z Microworkouts to Weave Into Your Day
The more specific you are about your intentions, the better. Don’t just say, “I’ll move more during commercial breaks.” Instead, say, “I’ll do 20 jumping jacks during every commercial break.”
Tailor the movements to your fitness level. If regular push-ups are too difficult, try wall push-ups. On the other hand, if they’re too easy, do one leg push-ups or dead stop push-ups instead.
Make use of whatever equipment you have on hand, and improvise with things like water jugs for upright rows or bags of garden dirt for heavy carries.
Leave yourself reminders. Put sticky notes on the coffee maker, bathroom mirror, or microwave. Leave your exercise bands hanging on the fridge door and your kettlebell in the middle of the office where you’ll see it. Get your family members or housemates involved so they help prod you to move.
Start by implementing a few at a time. Pick two or three cues you know will stand out—for me, it’s making coffee, checking social media, and refilling my trusty water cup—and pair them with distinct exercises that work different body parts. Once you are good about doing those exercises, add one or two more. Pretty soon, you’ll be moving considerably more during the day!
Tell us: What has helped you implement microworkouts into your day?
The post Habit Stacking Microworkouts (aka Working Out Without Having to Think About It) appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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The pandemic taught us one important lesson: everyone has an opinion and people in the fitness industry seem to have a lot more than most business-minded people. And it wasn’t really much fun to watch because, well, I don’t really need a personality dump from a trainer or coach, just training and coaching.
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Crisp and caramelized on the outside, but never burnt. A first bite that melts in your mouth as the savory, perfectly seasoned flavor of beef hits your palate. The rich, smoky aroma of animal fat dripping onto an open fire.
That, my friends, is a perfect steak. You don’t have to make reservations at an expensive steakhouse to reach this sort of steak nirvana. It can be yours any night of week in your own kitchen by following a few simple and painless steps.
First things first – you’ve got to buy the steak. To understand the meat case at a butcher shop, you must first understand your cuts of meat. Close your eyes and visualize standing in a field while looking at the side of a cow or steer. The first cut of meat behind the head is the shoulder, known in butchery terms as the chuck. Although flavorful, the often-used shoulder muscle is mostly tough and full of connective tissue. The meat from this section of a cow is less expensive and primarily used for slow-cooked roasts. However, if you’re looking for a bargain, a top blade steak, also called a flatiron, is a flavorful, fairly tender chuck steak to throw on the grill.
Next in the line-up, anatomically speaking, are the portions of a cow that butchers call the rib, short loin and sirloin. The meat from this top, middle area of the cow is the most tender, since the muscles move the least during a cow’s life (as compared to the shoulder, hind end and shank). From these three larger cuts come most of the steaks you see at the market.
Rib steaks are basically a prime rib roast cut into portions, with or without the bone.
A rib steak has the bone attached, but the more popular ribeye steak has had the bone removed. The ribeye is also sold as a Spencer steak in the western U.S., and Delmonico steak in the East. Rib steaks usually have large pockets of fat, which add flavor and give the steak a moist, juicy texture.
Short loin steaks are cut from the area below the backbone. There, you’ll find tenderloin or filet mignon, strip steak, New York strip, porterhouse, and others. is home to some of the most tender and popular cuts of beef, such as the Tenderloin, Strip Steak, T-Bone and Porterhouse Steaks. Loin cuts are great prepared on the grill or under a broiler.
Some people find a long, narrow and slightly triangular top loin steak to be less tender than a rib eye and miss the extra ripples of fat. Others think a top loin steak has just the right balance of flavor and tenderness, without being too fatty. When it has a bone, a top loin steak is known as a shell steak. When the bone is removed it goes by many names: a strip steak, Kansas City strip, New York strip and sirloin strip steak, (which, confusingly, comes from the short loin, not the sirloin) are all the same cut of steak.
Also cut from the short loin portion of a cow is the tenderloin, a portion of meat considered to be extremely tender (hence the name). Tenderloins are easy to recognize in the meat case, due to a long, cylindrical shape that’s thicker on one end then tapers down. A tenderloin is cut into many different types of steak, and all are pretty pricey. The thickest part (usually about 3 inches thick) of the tenderloin is cut into a steak known as chateaubriand. Filet mignon (also known as tenderloin steak) is cut from the meat behind the chateaubriand and is slightly less thick. Filet Mignon is thought to be the most tender part of the tenderloin, but on the downside, the flavor can be pretty mild.
Last but not least, the short loin gives us the t-bone, a steak named for, you guessed it, a “T” shaped bone that runs down the middle. On one side of the bone is meat from the top loin, and on the other is a thin strip of tenderloin. Some say this steak combines the best of both worlds: the tenderness of a tenderloin steak and the rich, “meaty” flavor of a top loin steak.
If you’re really hungry, skip the T-bone and go straight for the porterhouse, which is simply a t-bone steak with a bigger portion of tenderloin attached.
The sirloin is basically the cow’s hip. Sirloin steaks are usually fairly large but thin, and the meat is both moderately flavorful and moderately tender. Steaks from this region of a cow tend to be a good value. The most well-known among them are the top sirloin steak and the tri-tip, both boneless. Lesser-known steaks cut from the sirloin are the pin-bone, flat-bone, round-bone and wedge-bone steaks.
Directly below the loin and sirloin, on the underside of the cow’s belly, is the flank. Flank steak is a thin, wide, boneless cut with a texture (grain) that looks very stringy. Cooked very quickly to medium-rare and sliced thinly against the grain, the chewy texture is less noticeable and you will be rewarded with rich flavor.
If a high-quality cut of meat is cooked correctly, you really don’t need much more than salt and pepper. Which makes one think that seasoning a steak is a very short topic, until of course, you consider the hotly debated “salt early” and “salt late” theories.
The Salt Early Theory: Salting meat many hours or even days before cooking breaks down the protein in meat and makes it more tender. Initially, the salt draws out moisture, but over time the meat re-absorbs the moisture, which is now flavored with salt and therefore adds more succulent flavor to the meat.
The Salt Late Theory: Salt dries meat out. Period. Don’t add it until immediately before cooking.
In this debate, we take the middle road. In our experience, the salt early theory rings true with larger or tougher cuts of beef. For your average steak, salting about a half-hour before cooking is ideal and seasoning right before cooking works just fine, too.
Before seasoning, always make sure to pat the steak dry. Some people like to brush the steak with oil (avoid olive oil, which can become bitter at high heats) or a combination of melted butter and oil before seasoning to help the outside of the steak brown. Season both sides of the steak, using a teaspoon or less of both salt and pepper. Remember, you can always add more seasoning after the steak cooks, but you can’t un-salt the meat.
After seasoning, let the meat sit on the counter for a bit so it comes up to room temperature (a good rule of thumb is at least 10 minutes for every inch of thickness).
If you want to branch out from salt and pepper, marinades and rubs can be used on any type of steak, but are an especially great way to bring flavor to less-expensive cuts.
What we love about cooking steak on the stove is how easy it is to get a crisp, caramelized coating on the outside of the steak without over-cooking the middle. More often than not, this is harder to achieve on a grill. Using a combination of the stove-top and the oven is a tried and true method for perfect steak. The question is, which comes first?
The most common method is searing the steak first on the stove, then finishing it in a hot oven.
A small but vocal population of steak lovers swears by the “reverse sear” technique. The theory behind this method is that cooking the steak in the oven first will dry the outside of the steak while slowly cooking the inside and keeping it tender. If the outside of the steak is dry, it will then sear faster and more efficiently in a hot pan.So does this method really yield a more perfect steak? We have to admit, it did brown the outside of the steak very nicely while leaving the inside really juicy and tender. As a bonus, you get nice grill marks from baking the meat on the cooling rack. Give it a try, and you be the judge.
In some people’s minds, however, the only way to cook a steak is over an open flame in the great outdoors. Many of these same people consider grilling an art form that cannot be mastered overnight. It takes years of experimenting with different types of grills, different heat levels and cooking times and various seasonings and marinades. This may be true for some fanatics out there, but we feel pretty confident that you’ll get a great steak the first time out if you pay attention to a few key things.
The “charcoal vs gas” debate is one that has gone for decades, and we think they both have their place. For convenience and the easy ability to control heat levels, a gas grill can’t be beat. For depth of flavor, charcoal usually wins out.
Either way, you never want to put a steak on a cold grill. Wait until it heats up. For a gas grill, this is easy. Simply turn the knob to medium-high and keep the lid closed for 10-15 minutes. For a charcoal grill, the type of charcoal you use will affect the heat level as well as the flavor of the meat. Briquettes are easy to light, hold steady heat and are inexpensive, but they are also made with questionable additives that can give meat a chemical flavor. We favor hardwood charcoal (made from oak, hickory, mesquite, etc) for a natural, smoky flavor. Hardwood charcoal can be a little trickier to light and once it gets going it burns hotter and more unpredictably, which requires keeping a closer eye on the grill. A small price to pay, we think.
There is no point in using hardwood charcoal and then dousing it in lighter fluid, which will make your meat taste like it was marinated in petroleum. Instead, use a charcoal chimney starter to stack and light the coals. Once the coals are lit (usually about 30 coals are needed to provide adequate heat) wait until they change from bright red to an ashy white, which usually takes at least 20 minutes. Spread the coals out, placing most of them on one side to create a high heat side and a few on the other side of the grill to create a low heat side. Cover the grill for about five minutes so the heat builds to medium-high. To test the heat, simply hold your hand a few inches above the grill. If you can’t hold it there for more then 2 seconds, you’ve got high heat. If you can hold it there for 4-6 seconds without pulling away, the heat is medium-high.
Now, you’re ready to cook. Start by placing the steak (patted dry, seasoned and close to room temp.) over medium-high heat for at least 3 minutes without turning. This is about right for a 1-inch steak; thicker steaks will need another minute or two. Flip, and grill the other side for another 3 minutes. This should brown both sides and bring the steak to the brink of medium-rare.
To bring the steak up to desired doneness, move it to an area of the grill that has less-intense heat. Close the lid and cook for another 3-5 minutes before checking if it’s ready.
Although flames add excitement to grilling, they do nothing for the meat but burn it. Move the steak away from flare-ups as soon as they occur. In general, try to move the steak as little as possible while it cooks – too much movement prevents the steak from searing and getting a crispy, brown coating.
A thermometer is the most accurate way to gauge if steak is done to your liking. Although your thermometer will probably tell you that 145 degrees is rare for beef, any chef you ask will tell you differently.
Temperatures for Steak Doneness
You can also give the steak a poke with your finger. Rare is squishy, medium-rare is spongy, and medium-well is taut. The steak will continue to cook at least five degrees when it’s off the grill or out of the pan, so err on the side of taking it away from heat earlier rather than later.
The final step, which should be included no matter how you cook your steak, is letting the meat rest before cutting into it. As the meat cools down the proteins begin to firm up and hold moisture, so when you cut into the steak all the juicy goodness won’t run out. About 8-10 minutes should do it, and a loose cover of foil or no cover at all is a much better choice than tightly sealing the meat up while it rests. If you’re like us, it takes at least 8-10 minutes to set the table and get everyone to sit down, so usually this step simply happens without having to think about it.
Hungry yet? Get over to your local butcher shop, grab a little salt and pepper, and give one of these cooking methods a try. In less time than it takes to drive to a restaurant, you’ll be sitting down at your kitchen table with a tender, sizzling hot, and dare we stay it, perfect steak on your plate.
The post How to Buy and Cook the Perfect Steak appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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Research of the WeekThe human cerebellum stands out.
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Episode 489: Autumn Fladmo Smith: Host Elle Russ chats with Autumn Fladmo Smith, who used paleo to resolve IBS and anxiety and eventually go on to found Wild Pastures and Paleo Valley.
Episode 490: Dr. Anthony Balduzzi — The Fit Father Proejct: Host Brad Kearns chats with Dr. Anthony Balduzzi about fit fatherhood.
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One year ago (May 1 – May 7)
“Myths are the poetic, archetypal, yes Paleo/Primal foundation of Sapien consciousness. Please reconsider using myth as a synonym for false belief.”
-Good point, Chris.
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Mike Tromello is back on the show, and in this short, sharp, content-packed episode, he explains:
What your redline is:
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We’re all looking for the perfect formula, right? Just tell me how many grams of fat and carbs to eat. How many steps to take per day. And how many glasses of water I should be drinking within a 24-hour period.
We love the precision of it all. The safety of micromanaging every detail of our life with the promise that if we can dial it in enough, we’ll enjoy perfect health for the rest of our days. But when you think about all the forcing, measuring, counting, and obsessive overplanning that goes into this kind of micromanagement, there’s actually nothing healthy about it.
There’s nothing healthy about ignoring your body’s own cues in favor of what general nutrition — or random social media influencers say. Nutrition might be a science, but it’s also an art form. And learning to trust your body and what it’s trying to tell you trumps any water-to weight-ratio chart you’ll find online.
I’ve always followed Mark’s wisdom around water consumption. We both believe that the body has a well-regulated system for preventing dehydration and a built-in mechanism to let you know when we need more water. That internal mechanism is called your thirst.1
How much water you need is highly individual. Meaning, it depends on your unique circumstances, your activity level, and the climate you live in. Not only that, the advice to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day or half your bodyweight in ounces isn’t based on actual evidence.
Those guidelines initially game from the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board recommendations back in 1945, stating that people should drink 2.5 liters of water per day.2 Unfortunately, people who read that statement neglected to read the following sentence that read, “Most of this quantity is contained in foods.”
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It sounds easy, but it feels hard.
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A review published in the American Journal of Physiology goes even further to debunk the 8 glasses or 2 liter of water per day recommendation. Researchers looked at studies that measured the food and fluid intake of 28,081 men and women in the United States and found that such large volumes of water weren’t necessary for good health.3
They also found that caffeinated drinks (and to a lesser extent, alcohol) added to hydration levels, specifically noting that nearly one-half (47%) of the total fluids ingested by participants were coffee, tea, soft drinks, and alcohol.
So, as a health coach, I don’t push the hydration issue. Instead, I empower my clients to tune into something I think most of us don’t have a good handle on. And that’s trusting your body.
And while you’re at it, how about eating when you’re hungry, sleeping when you feel tired, and speaking up when you’ve got something to say? Wouldn’t that be miraculous? It would be so freaking liberating to stop forcing every single detail and instead, have a little faith that your body knows what it’s doing.
The trust your body message is something that gets lost in today’s world. In fact, we work extra hard to ignore those subtle and not-so-subtle signs. In fact, humans are the only species that exerts energy when they don’t need to.4
We deprive ourselves of sleep on purpose because there’s more work to crank out, or it’s too early to go to bed. We snub our hunger pangs because we tell ourselves we shouldn’t eat ‘til our fasting window opens if we want to lose weight.
We’ve become so used to ignoring and pushing through the discomfort that we’ve forgotten how to honor the miracle that is our body. I’m not saying you shouldn’t push yourself. But by training your brain to disregard the signs and symptoms, you’re doing yourself and your wellbeing a disservice.
From a health coaching perspective, the best way to hydrate is get tuned in to what your body is telling you. No one knows you better than you do. And when you get really dialed into your internal signals (instead of continuing the pattern of ignoring them), you don’t have to subject yourself to tracking your water intake — or monitoring your macros for that matter.
Forget the 8×8 rule or recommendations to drink half your bodyweight in ounces. The best way to hydrate is to listen to your body. Use these steps to practice tuning into your body’s internal signals, and drink when you’re thirsty. You’ll stay hydrated without having to micromanage your water intake.
Now it’s your turn. How do you decide how much water to drink?
The post The Best Way to Hydrate, According to a Health Coach appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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