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Savory, smokey, and dripping with creamy cheese, the Philly cheesesteak is an iconic loaded sandwich made traditionally with beefsteak, a hoagie roll, and oodles of melted cheese. We skipped the roll and redid the cheese sauce recipe for a Primal take on this Pennsylvania local favorite! Not totally authentic, granted, but delicious nonetheless.

You really can’t go wrong with thinly sliced steak topped with caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, and peppers. Sear the thinly sliced steak for only a minute, sauté the mushrooms and peppers until tender, and cook the onions until brown and sweet.

Pile it all high on plate—Philly cheesesteak isn’t about dainty serving sizes—and enjoy!

What Cheese Is on Philly Cheesesteak?

Different chefs might put their own spin on it, but cheesesteaks usually feature American, provolone, or even Cheez Whiz. We made our sauce here from sharp cheddar cheese, Primal Kitchen Dijon Mustard, and heavy cream. You can forget about making cheese sauce and just melt a slice of really good cheddar or aged provolone on top, or skip the cheese sauce if you don’t tolerate dairy.

How to Make a Philly Cheesesteak

Serves: 8

Time in the Kitchen: 1 hour

Ingredients

Meat:

• 3 Tbsp Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 lbs. (900g) boneless ribeye steaks (see Notes)
• 8 oz. sliced mushrooms
• 3 bell peppers (any color), sliced
• Salt and pepper
• Butter lettuce leaves, optional

Primal Cheese Sauce:

• ½ cup heavy cream or coconut milk
• 5 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• ½ Tbsp Primal Kitchen Dijon Mustard (or Spicy Mustard)
• Pinch of turmeric powder

Instructions

Before beginning to cook, place the steaks in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This will help them firm up so they can be sliced.

Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and peppers. Sauté for around 10 minutes or until they are very soft and the onions are beginning to caramelize. Remove the veggies from the pan.

Take the steaks out of the freezer and thinly slice them against the grain. Toss the slices in salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the steak to the pan and brown for about 30 to 45 seconds before giving them a stir and browning again on the other side. You want them to be cooked very quickly so they don’t overcook and get tough. It’s okay if the steak is still pink in the middle! Remove the steak slices from the pan and set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and add the mushrooms. Sauté until the mushrooms are soft, then set the mushrooms aside. There will probably be a little liquid in the pan after the mushrooms have cooked. Heat the pan over medium heat and reduce any liquid in the pan, then toss the steak slices back in the pan to warm them, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place the steak and veggies on a plate or on butter lettuce leaves.

Cheese Sauce Recipe

To make the cheese sauce, pour the cream/milk into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently to help it warm and to keep it from burning at the bottom of the pan. Let it bubble and cook for a minute or so, then add the mustard and pinch of turmeric. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens.

Once the sauce is bubbly and has thickened, turn off the heat and quickly add in the shredded cheese a bit at a time as you continue stirring. Continue stirring until the cheese has fully melted. Drizzle the sauce over your steak and enjoy!

Notes:

• If you want more cheese sauce, double the sauce recipe. I find a little of it goes a long way, but who doesn’t love more cheese?
• If you don’t have ribeye steaks, you can use something like top round or sirloin. Keep in mind that you may need to add more fat to the pan while cooking leaner cuts of meat to keep the meat moist.

Nutrition Info (1/8 of meat and cheese sauce):

Calories: 532
Fat: 45 g
Saturated Fat: 21 g
Carbs: 6 g
Net Carbs: 5 g
Protein: 24 g

Print

Philly Cheesesteak (with Optional Primal Cheddar Cheese Sauce)

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• 
  Author: Mark’s Daily Apple
• 
  Total Time: About 1 hour
• 
  Yield: 8 servings
• 
  Diet: Gluten Free

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Description

Savory, smokey, and dripping with creamy cheese, the Philly cheesesteak is an iconic loaded sandwich made traditionally with beefsteak, a hoagie roll, and oodles of melted cheese. We skipped the roll and redid the cheese sauce recipe for a Primal take on this Pennsylvania local favorite!

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Ingredients

Meat:

• 3 Tbsp Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 lbs. (900g) boneless ribeye steaks
• 8 oz. sliced mushrooms
• 3 bell peppers (any color), sliced
• Salt and pepper
• Butter lettuce leaves, optional

Primal Cheese Sauce:

• ½ cup heavy cream or coconut milk
• 5 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• ½ Tbsp Primal Kitchen Dijon Mustard (or Spicy Mustard)
• Pinch of turmeric powder

---

Instructions

Before beginning to cook, place the steaks in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This will help them firm up so they can be sliced.

Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and peppers. Sauté for around 10 minutes or until they are very soft and the onions are beginning to caramelize. Remove the veggies from the pan.

Take the steaks out of the freezer and thinly slice them against the grain. Toss the slices in salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the steak to the pan and brown for about 30-45 seconds before giving them a stir and browning again on the other side. You want them to be cooked very quickly so they don’t overcook and get tough. It’s okay if the steak is still pink in the middle! Remove the steak slices from the pan and set aside.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and add the mushrooms. Sauté until the mushrooms are soft, then set the mushrooms aside. There will probably be a little liquid in the pan after the mushrooms have cooked. Heat the pan over medium heat and reduce any liquid in the pan, then toss the steak slices back in the pan and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place the steak and veggies on a plate or on butter lettuce leaves.

To make the cheese sauce, pour the cream/milk into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently to help it warm and to keep it from burning at the bottom of the pan. Let it bubble and cook for a minute or so, then add the mustard and pinch of turmeric. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens. Once the sauce is bubbly and has thickened, turn off the heat and quickly add in the shredded cheese a bit at a time as you continue stirring. Continue stirring until the cheese has fully melted. Drizzle the sauce over your steak and enjoy!

Notes

If you want more cheese sauce, double the sauce recipe. I find a little of it goes a long way, but who doesn’t love more cheese?

If you don’t have ribeye steaks, you can use something like top round or sirloin. Keep in mind that you may need to add more fat to the pan while cooking leaner cuts of meat to keep the meat moist.

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/8 of recipe
• Calories: 532
• Sugar: 3 g
• Sodium: 199 g
• Fat: 45 g
• Saturated Fat: 21 g
• Trans Fat: 0 g
• Carbohydrates: 6 g
• Fiber: 1 g
• Protein: 24 g
• Cholesterol: 103 mg
• Net Carbs: 5 g

The post Philly Cheesesteak (with Optional Primal Cheddar Cheese Sauce) appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Before I started making soap, I basically used olive oil for cooking and coconut oil for my beauty needs. It wasn’t until I started exploring all of the unique properties of different oils that I began to widen my horizons. One of the ingredients I use often is castor oil — and for good reason. […]

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Research of the Week

Red meat is good for older people (and younger).

Using dairy to lose weight has better cardiometabolic effects than losing weight without dairy.

Dairy can improve zinc absorption.

Longitude within time zones and cancer risk.

Links between excessive napping and Alzheimer’s.

Monkeys in “fragmented forests” adapt to their surroundings by eating fewer calories and reducing activity.

New Primal Kitchen Podcasts

Primal Kitchen Podcast, Episode 22: Finessing the Role of the Fitness Coach With James Fitzgerald

Primal Health Coach: Stephanie Dodier has a non-diet approach to health.

Media, Schmedia

Nestle admits the obvious.

Interesting Blog Posts

The case for ditching daylight savings.

The link between high altitude living and longevity.

Social Notes

Old Ireland.

Protein intake and kidney health: not what it might seem at first glance.

Everything Else

New mouthguard tracks head hits in contact sports.

A tale as old as time: eggs are good.

Were all those “vaping-induced lung injuries” back in 2019 actually caused by undiagnosed COVID?

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Important point many miss: Devices are designed to guide and hone your intuition.

One does wonder: Does meditation actually provide benefits?

Reminder: This is what the “experts” want you to eat to save the world and your health.

Interesting claim: That artificial intelligence will make humans more important in war, not less.

Simple relationship: More dietary and plasma magnesium, lower blood gluose.

Question I’m Asking

Does meditation work for you?

Recipe Corner

• Potato dominoes.
• Protein pancakes. Nice little treat.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 12 – Mar 18)

• Proper Squat Form: Common Mistakes You Might Be Making — Don’t make them.
• Is Fear of Success For Real? — Well, is it?

Comment of the Week

“I’m so glad you wrote about the importance of not neglecting friendships. I have been meaning to contact a long-time friend that I haven’t seen in years. We had chatted last fall, and it’s been months since I last texted her. But your post motivated me to send her a quick message, and now we have a lunch date planned for next week! It’s all too easy to let weeks turn into months turn into years. Thank you, Mark.”

-Be like Daniela.

The post New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 169 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Ever had the experience of your in-laws or neighbors or your CSA handing you a big box of lemons from their tree, and you’re left wondering what the hell you’re going to do with all these lemons. You might love lemons (who doesn’t?) and want to take advantage of this bounty that’s fallen into your lap, but you don’t know where to start. You’ve never faced a pile of lemons this large before. You’re flummoxed.

Don’t do what most people end up doing and use a few here and there, letting the rest rot on the counter because you had no clue what to do. Instead, read on and find out how to preserve, store, and make the most of the lemons life gives you.

How to Store, Preserve, and Use Lemons

Freeze them.

The best way to quickly and easily store lemons long term is to freeze them whole.

Some people advocate washing the lemons first, but if they’re from a source you trust I don’t find it necessary. Plus, washing lemons prior to freezing means that you have to fully dry them or else you get icy lemons. Just brush off any obvious dirt and toss ’em in the freezer.

Whenever you need a lemon for anything, leave a frozen one on the counter to thaw. If you need one more quickly, simmer it in a covered pot until softened. The freezing actually ruptures the cell walls in the lemon, making them easier to juice. You’ll get more lemon juice out of a frozen-then-thawed lemon than you would from a lemon that’s never been frozen.

Freeze the juice in ice cube trays.

This is more work, but you get very convenient lemon juice ice cubes.

To truly freeze lemon juice ice cubes, you need extremely cold temperatures. A standard freezer on your fridge might not cut it; they’ll still freeze, but it’ll be a little syrupy and gooey.

For smaller jobs, this is a great citrus juicer.

Dehydrate the rind.

If you’re going to juice the lemons and freeze the juice, don’t waste the rind. Peel it with a vegetable peeler, then dehydrate the ribbons of lemon peel either in a food dehydrator, the oven on the lowest setting, or the warm sun.

One the rinds have all dried completely—they should cleanly snap in half, rather than bend—store them as is or grind into a fine powder. Store in an air tight container.

Lemon rind powder is excellent in salt and spice mixes, marinades, and salad dressings.

Make lemon vinegar.

Another option for all those rinds is homemade lemon vinegar, a powerful, multipurpose DIY cleaning solution.

Make salted dried lemons.

Boil about 12 cups of water with 2 cups of kosher salt dissolved in it. When it’s boiling, drop your lemons in and boil them for 5 minutes. Remove them from the water and place on drying racks.

If it’s hot out, let them dry outside. If it’s not, dry them on the lowest setting in your oven. It may take several days (oven) to a week (outside), but let them dry until they’re hard and crispy. Once they’re totally dry, you can add them whole to stews, break apart, or even grind and use in spice blends and rubs.

Dried salted lemons will last for years and provide a tangy, salty, umami earthiness to dishes.

Make preserved lemons.

People have been preserving lemons using lactofermentation since at least the 12th century, which is when the first recipe was committed to writing, but they’ve probably been doing it even longer. Preserving lemons takes some elbow grease.

• Cut each lemon into fourths without cutting all the way through. The four sections should still be attached together.
• Pour a tablespoon of kosher salt into each quartered lemon. Place in sterile jar.
• Really ram the lemons down so they all fit. Juice will gush out, mingle with the salt, and begin to fill the jar. This is what you want to happen.
• When all the lemons are crammed into the jar, add extra lemon juice until they’re all submerged.
• Shove a sprig of rosemary and a hot chili or two down into the jar between the lemons.
• Cover with a thin layer of olive oil and leave out on the counter to ferment for several weeks to several months. Taste as you go and when you like the taste and texture, stick in the fridge. Or don’t. Legend has it that Near Eastern and North African cultures would often leave the preserved lemons out at room temperature for years.

To enjoy preserved lemons, make use of everything: The juice is great in marinades and salad dressings. The lemons themselves are excellent in marinades, stews, salads, and when cooking fish. You can leave the lemons whole or blend the entire jar up and use the preserved lemon paste as needed.

Use them in ways you didn’t think possible.

Most people just don’t have any creativity when it comes to using lemons.

• Squeeze fresh juice over freshly cooked steak or lamb. It’s delicious.
• Add lemon juice to a tall glass of Gerolsteiner sparking mineral water with a dash of salt. Great morning pick me up or overall hydrator.
• Use the juice in place of vinegar. Salad dressings, recipes, marinades, etc.
• Grill asparagus (or any vegetable, really) and toss in olive oil and lemon juice. Finish with salt.
• Fresh lemon juice is a killer finisher for homemade gravy. Cuts through the richness.
• Take an avocado, a can of sardines, maybe some smoked oysters, and lemon juice. Mix it and mash it all together, then eat.
• Put a whole lemon inside your chicken when it roasts. Cook veggies and tubers in the pan juices midway through.
• Make ceviche. Lots of lemon juice, salt, onions, garlic, chili peppers, and fish marinated until the fish “cooks.”
• If you eat legumes, a chickpea salad is a fantastic meal. Chickpeas, sardines or chicken, lemon juice, olive oil, salt. Stir to mix, consume.
• Lemon juice with water at a 1:1 ratio soothes a sore throat.

Make lemonade.

Yes, you can make healthy lemonade that doesn’t involve any sugar or artificial sweeteners at all. All you need:

• Juice from 1-2 lemons.
• Sparkling mineral water. I recommend Gerolsteiner or Topo Chico.
• Inositol and glycine.
• Salt (optional).

Add a teaspoon (or more to taste) each of inositol and glycine to a cup. If you’re including salt, add a few pinches now. Add an ounce of sparkling water and stir until dissolved.

Add the rest of the water, leaving enough space for the juice.

Finish with lemon juice. Enjoy.

That’s what I’ve got. A big box of lemons is an incredible gift that can last you for years, if you play your cards right.

How do you deal with a ton of lemons? What are your favorite uses for lemons?

Let me know down below and thanks for reading.

The post What to Do With That Box of Lemons appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Stress comes at us from all directions, and it’s not always the usual suspects like work, finances, and global strife that derail us. Even things we find enjoyable and meaningful—exercise, hobbies, volunteer work—contribute to our overall stress level as we struggle to fit everything into our busy lives.

As we’ve discussed before on the blog, stress adheres to the “Goldilocks principle.” Too much and too little stress can both get you in trouble. The goal is to find that just right sweet spot somewhere in the middle. In the right amount, stressors challenge us to adapt mentally and physically to our circumstances, prompting us to become stronger and more resilient.

I find the analogy of the “stress bucket” helpful in conceptualizing stress. This is a shorthand way of saying that all the stress we face, from sources we’d label both good and bad, gets thrown into the same pile. Our body has to process all of it. Ideally, we’d have more “good stress” (exercise, hot and cold exposure, stimulating mental challenges, etc.) than “bad stress.” Even then, though, we need to keep an eye on our total stress load to make sure the bucket doesn’t overflow.

There are both objective and subjective metrics you can use to track your stress over time. Objective variables are things you can measure with tools—biometric devices, blood tests, and such. Subjective measures are your personal judgments. An outside scientist can’t validate them, but subjective data still very valuable. The goal of tracking these metrics is to prevent a health crisis and keep stress in a healthy range.

Here are some metrics you can use to track and monitor stress:

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Heart rate variability (HRV) is arguably the most accurate and most popular way to measure stress at the moment. HRV tracks autonomic nervous system activity—the branch of the nervous system that regulates the internal organs, maintains homeostasis, and prepares the body for action. The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic (“fight-flight-freeze”) and parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) nervous systems. In a perfect world, the sympathetic nervous system is activated when we have to rise to a challenge like interviewing for a new job or swerving to avoid an oncoming car. However, we generally want to walk around in a calm and relaxed state thanks to the parasympathetic nervous system predominating.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works for most people. Chronic stress from all areas of our lives keeps the sympathetic nervous working overtime, pumping out adrenal hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine to deal with the constant threat (or what the nervous system perceives as a threat, anyway). Over time, this perpetual state of high alert creates all manner of problems.

HRV tells you how active the parasympathetic nervous system is relative to the sympathetic nervous system. Higher numbers reflect a more relaxed, less stressed state. Wearable trackers like the Oura ring, Whoop bracelet, and Apple watch all measure HRV, or you can sync a heart rate strap to one of several phone apps. Some apps even allow you to use your phone’s camera to measure HRV so you don’t need any additional devices.

What is a good heart rate variability score?

The general rule of thumb is that a higher resting HRV is better, but there aren’t clearcut guidelines for optimal HRV scores. The prevailing wisdom is that you shouldn’t compare your score to other people’s. Rather, you should track your own HRV over time and learn what factors cause your HRV to fluctuate up or down. In other words, get to know your unique patterns, then take steps to increase your HRV (i.e., decrease your chronic stress) if appropriate. Tracking your HRV over time lets you see when things are headed in the wrong direction, perhaps due to a period of poor sleep, work stress, or overtraining.

Learn more about HRV in this MDA post: Have You Checked Your Heart Rate Variability Lately?

What Your Resting Heart Rate Says About Your Stress Level

All else being equal, a higher heart rate—particularly a higher resting heart rate—indicates a more stressed-out state.

Heart rate is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, with higher heart rate indicating more sympathetic nervous system activity. This makes sense. Since the sympathetic nervous system gets you ready to fight or flee, it increases heart rate to pump more oxygenated blood to the muscles.

Resting heart rate used to be a go-to method of tracking stress, but now that HRV is so easy to measure, HRV is the preferred method. If you have an Oura ring, it gives you a daily Readiness Score that takes into account resting heart rate, HRV, and other factors like body temperature and sleep. Whoop offers a similar Recovery indicator.

How Stress Affects Sleep

Sleep disturbances are common when you’re stressed. Possible signs that you’re dealing with a lot of stress include difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, getting too little sleep, sleeping more than normal, or insomnia.

You can measure sleep objectively using a wearable sleep tracker, or subjective assessments can often suffice. It’s pretty obvious when you’re not sleeping well, after all. It’s worth paying attention to fatigue, too, in addition to how much time you spend in bed and how well you sleep. Stress may affect your sleep cycles or sleep efficiency in ways you wouldn’t necessarily detect but which nonetheless leave you feeling unrested.¹

Poor sleep is itself a physiological stressor, so the sleep-stress spiral can become a double-edged sword. The opposite is also true—getting good sleep can help equip your body to deal with stress. Making an effort to optimize sleep, especially during stressful times, is imperative. Check out these posts for tips about maximizing your sleep:

• The Definitive Guide to Sleep
• 17 Ways to Improve Your Sleep
• How to Manufacture the Best Night of Sleep in Your Life

Cortisol Tests

Cortisol is an adrenal hormone often called “the stress hormone,” although it is one of several hormones involved in the body’s stress response. Arguably, though, it is the most important as it triggers many of the processes we associate with the fight-flight-freeze response: mobilization of fuel (especially glucose), slowing digestion, facilitating increased blood flow to the muscles. It also plays other essential roles in the body not related to acute stress.

When you’re dealing with chronic stress, a blood, saliva, or 24-hour urine test (where you collect all your urine for one day) might show that you have either abnormally high or abnormally low cortisol.² Some practitioners, especially in the functional medicine space, will also order a DUTCH test, which measures cortisol in the urine at five different time points throughout the day. (Repeated salivary cortisol tests can do the same.) When your HPA (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal) axis is working properly, cortisol follows a daily rhythm where it is naturally highest in the morning and lowest in the evening. Chronic stress can interfere with that rhythm and flatten the curve, meaning there is less variation in cortisol levels throughout the day. Studies have shown that a flattened curve predicts breast cancer survival³ and is associated with health problems like type 2 diabetes.⁴

Motivation

I hear all the time from coaches who work with athletes across a variety of sports that no metric beats motivation to train. In other words, the best way to tell if they’re up for a training session is whether they want to do the training session. Mark says essentially the same in Primal Endurance. Tracking HRV, sleep, and heart rate all are well and good, but ultimately, how you feel is your best guide in terms of daily training decisions. (Yes, sometimes even the most dedicated individuals have to summon some willpower to get out the door. Still, seasoned athletes learn the difference between “I’d prefer to stay in my comfy bed” and “I need a rest day.”)

This same concept applies to other areas of your life. Instead of “willingness to train,” think of it as “willingness to participate.” If you consistently dread going to work, or if you feel like it’s a major struggle to prepare another dinner, that’s a sign you’re overstressed. And yes, it’s extremely common—the norm even. That doesn’t make it good or right or least of all healthy.

Sure, you’re never going to be excited to do the boring parts of adulting like scheduling dentist appointments and remembering to give your cat her daily medicine. But if you consistently have the blahs about doing things you know are worthwhile—and especially things that are normally enjoyable like going out with friends—it’s time for a stress inventory.

Other Subjective Markers You Can Use to Measure Stress

Journaling can help you keep track of subjective ratings over time. To be systematic about it, make a list of germane variables and rate them on a scale of 1 to 5, for example. Use an app or even an excel spreadsheet to track your ratings. Otherwise, try free-journaling, then look back to identify patterns.

Emotional symptoms of stress

Anger, irritation, overwhelm, sadness, and generally feeling moody are all signs of chronic stress.

Forgetfulness and lack of focus

Acute stress may actually increase memory and attention because you need all your senses heightened when facing a threat. Chronic stress, on the other hand, interferes with cognition and may manifest as forgetfulness, brain fog, and an inability to focus.⁵ (These symptoms could also be related to sleep impairment, which is widely known to impair cognitive functioning.)

Food cravings or the opposite, lack of appetite

You might have experience with feeling either ravenously hungry—but mostly for sweet, salty, or fatty foods—or else having no appetite whatsoever during particularly stressful times in your life.

Gastrointestinal symptoms

One of the things cortisol does is divert blood flow away from the gut. Stress can also affect the microbiome.⁶ And of course, we don’t always make the best choices around food and alcohol when we’re feeling stressed. All these factors can manifest in various digestive or G.I. symptoms including stomach aches, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, and heartburn. People with chronic issues like IBS may also experience stress-related flares.

Aches and pains

When you’re chronically stressed, you also tend to hold tension in your neck, shoulders, jaw, lower back, hips, hands, and/or feet. Some people believe that you can diagnose what types of negative emotions you’re experiencing based on where you feel the most tension or pain. Whether or not that’s true, it’s certainly the case that stress can manifest as physical discomfort. In addition to aches and pains, stress sometimes triggers more serious issues like migraines⁷ and fibromyalgia flares.⁸

Don’t Let Tracking and Monitoring Stress You Out

Tracking and monitoring are supposed to help you gather data that you can use to head off health problems, make better decisions, ingrain new habits, or run self-experiments. On the surface, it seems like more information is always better, but there’s a catch. Namely, the tracking and monitoring can itself become stressful. Too much reliance on data from trackers can also disconnect you from your intuition about what you need.

A perfect example of this is food tracking. Weighing and measuring food can be extremely helpful if you’re experimenting with a new eating strategy like a keto diet. Likewise when you’re trying to find out if certain foods are triggering health problems. However, it can quickly become tedious and take the joy out of cooking and eating. Worse, it may make you feel like you aren’t allowed to listen to your hunger and satiety signals because you are “supposed” to eat a given amount.

In other words, there are pros and cons to self-monitoring. It’s always good to foster self-awareness and approach your day-to-day behaviors more mindfully. Just make sure that you aren’t obsessing over the data nor giving too much power to wearable devices. Tracking should make you feel empowered to make choices that support your overall health and well-being.

Finally, it’s worth noting that stress affects everyone differently. It might manifest for you in ways not mentioned here. Pay attention to the variables most relevant to you.

For tips on managing stress, check out these Mark’s Daily Apple posts:

• 15 Ways to Fight Stress
• 10 Actions for an Anti-Stress Protocol
• The 5 Best Adaptogens for Stress Reduction 

The post Ways to Track and Monitor Stress appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Oven-roasted garlic is the new latest and greatest Internet culinary craze. Everything old is new again, huh?

Seemingly simple, this take on a savory topper to vegetables and Italian-inspired dishes has foodies in a frenzy. It’s unclear what made this classic technique so trendy again, but roasted garlic cloves have a delicious aroma and a mellow, rich taste. Like other alliums, garlic is a good source of prebiotic fiber to feed your gut microbiota, and it boasts some other impressive health benefits as well. Even if you usually find garlic a bit too pungent for your taste, I’d strongly encourage you to give this recipe a try.

Making Roasted Garlic

Makes: Recipe is for one head of garlic, but you can make as many as you want at one time!

Ingredients

• One head of garlic
• 1-2 Tbsp Primal Kitchen Olive Oil or Avocado Oil

Directions

The smell and taste of roasted garlic is delicious in SO many recipes, and it’s very simple to make.

To make roasted garlic, first cut off the top quarter or third of your head of garlic horizontally so you can see all of the little cloves inside.

Next, you have three options depending on what you have on hand:

1. Place the head of garlic cut side up in the center of a small piece of parchment. Drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive oil or avocado oil on top of the exposed cloves. Wrap the parchment up over the garlic and tie with a piece of butcher twine.
2. Place the head of garlic cut side up in the center of a small piece of parchment. Drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive or avocado oil on top. Wrap up the parchment over the garlic like a little package. Then place the covered garlic in the center of a small piece of foil and wrap the foil up over the top of the garlic.
3. Place the garlic in a small ramekin cut side up and drizzle it with oil.

Any of the above options will work! Once you’ve prepped your garlic, place it on a small sheet pan and put it in a 375 degree Fahrenheit (190 degree Celsius) oven for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the garlic cloves are soft.

When finished, allow the garlic to cool for a few minutes, then remove it from whatever paper or container it is in. Squeeze the garlic from the bottom so the cloves squeeze out of the top. Squeeze the roasted cloves into a small ramekin and then use in your favorite recipe.

How to Store Roasted Garlic

I find that I use roasted garlic right away, so I personally never need to store it. There are concerns about botulism from storing garlic in oil at room temperature, so store garlic covered in oil in the fridge for short-term storage. However, I recommend if you make extra garlic and want to store it, keeping it in the freezer works best.

Simply squeeze out the cloves and place them into a freezer-safe vessel, or mix them with oil and freeze the mixture in ice cube trays.

Ways to Use Roasted Garlic:

Add roasted garlic to your favorite roasted vegetables, salad dressings, or soups. Below are a few recipes in which you can use roasted garlic. Simply add as much roasted garlic as you want or replace 1 to 2 times the amount of garlic in the recipe with the roasted garlic:

Butternut Squash Soup
Swedish Meatballs
Mashed Root Vegetables
Lemon Butter Chicken

Bonus Recipe: Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

This is a great little salad dressing featuring roasted garlic. It is delicious over massaged kale salads and can be adapted for any type of salad year round!

Ingredients:

• 1 head roasted garlic
• 2-3 tbsp. olive oil
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. honey
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

To make this dressing, squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out into a small bowl and mash with the olive oil. Whisk in the lemon juice, vinegar, onion powder, and honey. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dress your salad and enjoy!

More Recipes for Garlic Lovers from Mark’s Daily Apple:

• Garlic Soup with Mushrooms and Chive Oil
• Garlic Balsamic Chicken Skillet with Cherry Tomatoes
• Roasted Bone Marrow with Rosemary and Garlic

Roasted Garlic FAQs

How long does it take to roast garlic?

With your oven set to 400 degrees, you’ll want to cook garlic cloves for 30 to 40 minutes. You’ll know they are done when they feel soft when you press on them. They should have a nice carmelized color and a rich aroma.

How long does roasted garlic last?

When kept in an airtight container, roasted garlic should last about 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Alternatively, freeze whole roasted garlic cloves on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then transfer them to an airtight container. Or, mash the cloves and freeze them in ice cube trays with olive oil.

Can you cook garlic in the air fryer?

You can! If your air fryer has a Bake or Roast setting, you can follow the directions above. Start checking the garlic after 20 minutes and remove it when it’s soft. Or, air fry at 380 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Is garlic a vegetable?

Yes, garlic is technically a vegetable. More specifically, garlic is an allium, as are onions, leeks, shallots, chives, and scallions. You can eat garlic raw or cooked. Garlic has long been used used in traditional medicine, and research suggests it indeed has many health benefits.

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Roasted Garlic Recipe

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Description

The smell and taste of roasted garlic are delicious in so many recipes, and it’s very simple to make. Add roasted garlic to your favorite roasted vegetables, salad dressings, or soups, or enjoy it spread on crackers or crostini. 

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Ingredients

One head of garlic

1–2 Tbsp Primal Kitchen Olive Oil or Avocado Oil

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Instructions

First, cut the top quarter or third of your head of garlic off horizontally so you can see all of the little cloves inside.

Next, you have three options depending on what you have on hand:

1. Place the head of garlic cut side up in the center of a small piece of parchment. Drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive oil or avocado on top of the exposed cloves. Wrap the parchment up over the garlic and tie with a piece of butcher twine.
2. Place the head of garlic cut side up in the center of a small piece of parchment. Drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive or avocado oil on top. Wrap up the parchment over the garlic like a little package. Then place the covered garlic in the center of a small piece of foil and wrap the foil up over the top of the garlic.
3. Place the garlic in a small ramekin cut side up and drizzle it with oil.

Any of the above options will work! Once you’ve prepped your garlic, place it on a small sheet pan and put it in a 375 degree Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) oven for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the garlic cloves are soft.

When finished, allow the garlic to cool for a few minutes, then remove it from whatever paper or container it is in. Squeeze the garlic from the bottom so the cloves squeeze out of the top. Squeeze the roasted cloves into a small ramekin and then use in your favorite recipe.

The post How to Roast Garlic (Plus a Bonus Recipe!) appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Research of the Week

Adding perch to Eurasian lakes reduces methane production ten-fold.

Mask mandates don’t affect transmission in Catalonian school children.

Magnesium and L-theanine: great combo for sleep.

More steps, less death.

Glycine with NAC extends life in rodents. Maybe you, too.

Creatine augments the effects of SSRIs in depression.

New Primal Kitchen Podcasts

Primal Kitchen Podcast, Episode 21: Q&A on Testosterone with Yours Truly

Primal Health Coach: Sylvia Hall

Media, Schmedia

It’s a great profit model.

Interesting Blog Posts

I use all three of these methods for making food more anti-inflammatory.

Appalachian truffle hunting is on the rise.

“Why I continue to change my diet.”

Social Notes

In times of crisis, sit with yourself.

Everything Else

The genetic history of the Tibetans.

Birds on fire.

Old keto/cancer study. How long have we known it might help?

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Fascinating: How sex chromosomes matter in heart disease treatment.

Great overview: Nina Teicholz on the History of Vegetable Oils.

Reminder: Even “genetic obesity” isn’t destiny.

Incredible stat: Americans consume an average of 34 grams of unprocessed red meat per day.

Remember that changes occur under the hood: Exercise remodels body fat even without fat loss.

Question I’m Asking

How much has your grocery bill risen in the last few months?

Recipe Corner

• How to sear scallops (just nix the vegetable oil for avocado oil).
• Burnt carrots with goat cheese, arugula, and crispy garlic chips. Swap out seed oils as needed.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 5 – Mar 11)

• What Are Branched Chain Amino Acids and Do They Help Muscle Growth and Recovery? — Well?
• 9 Ways to Customize Your Keto Diet— How to modify.

Comment of the Week

“Re the snow leopard,, my guess is that free soloist Alex honnold climbs more with his gut that his hands. How else could you maintain that zone. I need to re-read that book.”

-I imagine that’s pretty close to the truth.

The post New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 168 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

I’m coming to you today with a Success Story from Mark’s Daily Apple reader Gerhard. Gerhard started Primal with one goal in mind, only to unlock a host of life-changing benefits. Love when that happens. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community, please contact me. Thank you for reading!

Dear Mark,

We’ve never met, but you’ve had a profound impact on my life. I never knew when would be the right time to send you a success story. But over the years I’ve come to realize it’s a process and not an end destination. So here’s my story so far.

As I’m writing this it’s been exactly six years to the day that I started my “30 day primal experiment.” For several years I’d had eczema around my eyes. It came and went, but I was done with it. So after reading The Primal Blueprint and many success stories on your website I decided to “try this primal thing” for a month to see what would happen.

At the time I didn’t even know what brain fog was, let alone that I had it, but within three days of starting the experiment, it lifted. I remember having the thought “Is this how easy thinking is for everyone else?” The eczema took a bit longer, but after it was gone it never returned. Turns out I’m quite sensitive to gluten.

You see, I’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder about seven years prior to going primal. I thought taking a pill every day was just how life was going to be for me. But the mental clarity I’d gained gave me the confidence to taper off of the medication (with the help of my doctor by using tapering strips). About a month ago I celebrated three years of being medication-free!

Since starting the medication I’d gained about 20 kilograms of weight (44 lbs) and I had already managed to lose half of that by eating less and moving more. Within the first ten weeks of going primal I lost the other 10 kilograms! This put me pretty much at my college weight.

So what started with trying to get rid of eczema did exactly that, but it ended up doing so much more. I feel the decision to go primal was a pivotal moment in my life.

Some other noteworthy things I’ve done in the last six years are running a half marathon and raising money for cancer research by riding my road bike up French Alpe d’Huez six times in one day. That’s a total elevation gain of about 6.350 metres (20.800 ft). This is something I didn’t think I’d be able to do, but thanks to training based on the method laid out in your book Primal Endurance, I did it.

I’ve done calisthenics exercises for a few years and recently I decided to take “lift heavy things” in another direction by starting a 5×5 barbell program. I’m curious to find out where this will take me.

There’s a lot more I could say, but the bottom line is: I’d advise anyone also considering ‘trying this primal thing’ to give it a (solid) go for a month. You have nothing to lose, but you may have a lot to gain. I know I have.

Thank you Mark, from the bottom of my heart.

Kind regards,
Gerhard

The post Success Story: This Went Better Than Expected! appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Last week, I told you how to embrace the cold—how to make the most of an uncomfortable ambient temperature. Today, I’m giving you some ideas on how to embrace the other uncomfortable ambient temperature: heat. What can you do to make the most of hot weather? How do you handle heat? How can you make something objectively unpleasant—and even dangerous—beneficial, pleasant, and enjoyable?

Because you shouldn’t just give in and turn on the AC and forget about doing anything. You shouldn’t run away from the heat. You should be able to face it head on and make friends with the heat, not enemies.

How to Embrace the Heat

Wake up early.

Get up early, earlier than usual go outside, and get as much intellectual work done as you can before the heat ramps up.

Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of Singapore, often said that air conditioning was the single biggest factor in his country’s rise to prominence. Once AC was installed in the cities, his people finally had relief from the oppressive tropical heat and could do real intellectual work. The same is true for the individual. Heat makes thinking, writing, and creating harder. Early morning before the sun starts hitting hard is the best time to get creative, intellectual work done. Or any work, really—yard work, labor, etc.

Get up before the sun starts asserting itself. Another advantage of doing this is that the early morning natural light will entrain your circadian rhythm so you can get to bed earlier and fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply.

Sit with the heat.

Don’t reach for the AC right away. Take some clothes off and just sit with the heat and the sweat and the misery. Let it envelop you and know that you will be fine. You’re going to survive, it’s not that bad, you’re simply going to be uncomfortable. Accept the fact that you’re going to feel the heat and know that you, as a human, have a long history of handling extreme temperatures—both cold and hot. It’s what you’re built to do. You got this.

You must accept the heat. You can’t change it. It’s here, you’re in it, and you are going to deal with it.

Consume electrolytes.

It’s not enough to simply drink water in hot weather. Drink water, of course, but doing that without heeding the importance of electrolytes—sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium being the foremost ones to worry about—will have you urinating out most of the water you consume without actually absorbing much of it. So what does this mean?

For most people in most situations, sprinkling salt in all your water is adequate. (A squirt of lemon will make it more palatable.) Getting enough sodium will help you retain the other electrolytes. If you’re really going to be exerting yourself in the heat, then go with a legitimate electrolyte supplement like LMNT or my tried and true homemade electrolyte drink: coconut water, salt, blackstrap molasses, and lemon or lime juice.

Read my previous posts on electrolytes—what they are and how to get them—for more information and more ideas on electrolyte repletion.

Wear linen.

I wear lots of linen lately, ever since moving to Miami. Linen is a legitimate performance material that doesn’t get enough respect. It’s not just lounge material. It breathes, it looks good, it feels great, and there’s something special about wearing “natural” fibers that words or science can’t quite capture. Plus, there are no plastic synthetic fibers in linen, so when you wash it you aren’t adding to the microplastic load on Earth and its ground water.

Little known fact that may or may not be totally accurate: linen is made from flax, so in a pinch you can chew on your linen shirt to extract enough omega-3s to satisfy your daily requirements.

Good linen company here.

Take your clothes off.

Remove them all. Get naked. Put on your birthday suit. Do so only in a socially acceptable place, like your own home or backyard or property, but take them off. Your home is where “society” ends and your dominion begins. You’re not a character in a TV show who has to be fully dressed at home. You can let loose and remove the cotton shackles that bind your thermoregulation. You can take you clothes off—as many as it takes to feel comfortable.

Get sun, but not too much.

Hot weather means strong sun, and strong sun means vitamin D production. But if you aren’t acclimated to the sunlight, or you have strong genetic proclivities toward sun vulnerability, strong sun can burn your skin and increase the risk of skin cancer.

Of course, sun avoidance is linked to more cancer and more health issues than sun exposure, but you still need to do it safely.

• Slowly build sun tolerance. Get ten minutes today, fifteen tomorrow, and so on.
• Avoid burning. Get out while you’re ahead.
• Get early morning sun. AM sun is higher in infrared light, which protects your skin against subsequent UV damage.
• Don’t rely on sunscreen. Many of the products on the market do more damage than sun itself. Covering up with hats and clothing or finding shade are much better options than slathering sunscreen containing questionable compounds. Good sunscreen exists, but it’s still not ideal.

Read this post on safe sun exposure for further details. Or this one.

Eat spicy food.

Spicy food cools you off by heating you up and speeding up the sweat effect, thereby cooling you. I wouldn’t advise using this method to increase heat tolerance during exercise or active intense heat exposure. It’s more about the “impression” of ambient heat—how hot you “feel.”

A little “hack,” if you will, is to sprinkle some cayenne in a glass of water and drink it. Add only as much as you can tolerate. This is coincidentally also a great morning wake-up in the absence of coffee.

Avoid stress.

Stress is stress is stress—stress is fungible. Heat is a major stressor, and if you’re trying to deal with a heavy commute after a bad night’s sleep and not training for two weeks and junk food at night and arguing with your family and putting things off you should have already taken care of, the heat will take an even greater toll on you. Heat is an unavoidable stressor, furthermore. It’s there, you can’t escape it, it’s in the environment, and you’d better soften its blow by handling all the other stressors you can control.

This lines up well with the first recommendation: get the hard stuff done early before the world heats up. There’s nothing quite so unpleasant as trying to handle stressful duties and situations in 100-degree weather. Get it done early and what’s normally stressful won’t be.

Use the car sauna.

On a truly hot day, your car can hit upwards of 130 or 140 degrees F. Go get in the car, sit there, and just take the heat. Imagine it’s a sauna. It is a sauna. Feel that heat. Feel the sweat trickling down your neck down your shirt. Feel your heat shock proteins coming to life, pulsating, activating.

Don’t leave your dog or toddler in the car on a hot day, but for you—an adult with a functional forebrain—it can be very beneficial. Just don’t die or fall asleep. Be smart.

Do long easy workouts and short hard workouts.

I wouldn’t recommend long, grueling hikes in the heat. I wouldn’t recommend extended CrossFit-style metabolic conditioning workouts in the heat. I wouldn’t recommend running a marathon in the heat. But I would recommend long easy workouts and short hard workouts in the heat. Think a shaded walk. Think a hike through the forest. Think a nice swim (see below for more on that). Staying in an aerobic heart rate zone (take 180, subtract your age, and keep your heart rate under that number) will keep you from overexerting yourself, overheating, and running into problems.

I’d also recommend short, hard workouts. Intensity up, duration down. Five minute kettlebell session in full sun. Push the sled (or the car) around outside. Drag the barbells outside. Run some hill sprints (rest in the shade).

Your body can handle long easy stuff and short hard stuff in intense heat, no problem. It’s the long hard stuff that causes problems.

Go swimming.

This is the perfect opportunity to get some time in the water.

Swimming is a great workout, yes. You can sprint and get an incredible cardiovascular workout and muscle pump. You can go long and slow and make it aerobic. You can take some dumbbells or kettlebells into the water and do underwater workouts (like Laird Hamilton).

But swimming is also relaxing. It’s play. It’s fun. It’s an underutilized mode of transportation. Some would say that humanity is an aquatic species, or at least amphibious. We’ve always congregated along the coastlines whenever possible, and our giant brains are largely a product of our evolutionary access to the long-chain omega-3s found in shellfish and marine animals. We’re supposed to be spending lots of time in water.

Natural bodies of water are optimal—you get the natural mineral soak, the splash of the salt water cleansing and renewing you, the fury of the surf pounding you, the silt and sand and rocks underfoot, the overall wildness of the endeavor—but a nice pool works great as well.

That’s how I beat the heat: not by fighting it, but by joining it. Enjoying it. Accepting it. Using it to actually improve my day to day life.

I’d love to hear how you deal with the heat. How do you embrace hot weather?

Let me know down below.

The post Embracing the Heat appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Epsom salt may seem like an unlikely go-to home remedy, however, the more I learn about it, the more I want to keep it around—in my kitchen, bathroom and even my garden shed. My first experience with Epsom salt was as a kid was when I sprained my ankle. My mom made me soak my […]