Primal Dieters' Winter Secrets

For those of us who are following the Primal Diet by Aajonus Vonderplanitz, PhD, the cold winter months may deter you from following through with consuming only raw food. But that was until you learned of my secrets to fuel you metabolism and keep you warm. Yesterday someone asked me "don't you crave warm comfort foods when it is cold out?" I told them I don't crave them at all, however, on occasion (once every 2 or 3 months) I do have a warm meal. I explain that after I eat a warm meal, which tastes good and feels good while eating, cravings for more cooked food arise. Also, I find myself looking for dessert, something sweet, pastries come to mind and I really crave water. My body is looking for more food because it did not receive enough nutrition from the cooked foods. Anyway, here are some secrets to making the Primal Diet and eating raw through the cold months actually a pleasure.

• Eat meat with 1T of raw unheated honey, 1/4tsp of Royal Jelly and 1T of organic virgin coconut oil. All of these have a stimulating affect on metabolism. The faster your metabolism the more heat you will produce through the burning of fuel.
  
• Warm your meat up by placing the meat in a glass jar and with lid in place submerge in medium hot water for 10-15minutes. Then feel free to add in some warm spices and herbs such as cumin, ginger, home made fermented mustard, cinnamon, clove, etc...and herbs such as watercress, chives, cilantro, etc...along with 1-2T of grated radish or turnips. Always have a fresh supply of salt free curry.
  
• Warm up your dairy the same way as you would the meat. Then add in cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin and ginger into your milk shake.
  
• Use the brine of oysters, muscles and/or clams in your meat meals. The salt flavor and rich minerals are warming and favorable to the kidneys.
  
• Add some warming herbs or spice to your veggie juices. Radish and turnip do this nicely as does a small amount of habernaro. Sip your veggie juice slow to warm it up in your mouth before swallowing. The Chinese saying "Your stomach is the 100 degree soup", therefore nothing hotter or colder than that is optimal.
  
• First thing in the morning have a shot of apple cider vinegar in 8oz of warm water (105 degrees) with 1T of raw unheated honey and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
  
• Add more organic virgin coconut oil to the diet. Make your lubrication/moisturizing formula with 1/2 butter and 1/2 coconut oil. Make your mayonnaise with 1/3 coconut oil, 1/3 olive oil and 1/3 sesame seed oil (warming) or raw butter.
  
• Consume 2-4T of lactofermented veggies such as sauerkraut, kimchee or pickles with meat. This also increase the fire in your belly.
  
• Daily brush your skin, hot/cold water contrast shower in the morning followed by a Primal Body cream all over your body or coconut oil, and then a hot bath or sauna at night. The hot/cold water shower is stimulating which is wonderful to increase circulation for the day and the hot bath at night is calming and also increases circulation.
  
• Eat slower than usual and some may have to eat more frequent smaller meals. This keeps the metabolic fire burning steady throughout the day.

What you bring to life will show up in your life. Enjoy your winter!

Dan