Beef Fat for Better Health: Part 4

August 29, 2020October 13, 2021 / Primal Influence / Leave a comment

The final post in our special 4-part series!

What’s one of our favourite ways to utilise beef fat?

Rendering it to become tallow and using the tallow to make MOISTURISER!

As mentioned in the previous blog, tallow is incredibly good for human skin. But in it’s pure form it doesn’t make for a practical moisturiser because it’s so firm and hard to spread.

If you ever get tallow on your hands while making it from suet/other fat, or while cooking with it, and you rub it into your skin you’ll realise how nice it feels and you’ll probably notice it doesn’t leave your skin feeling greasy afterwards. Compared to how coconut oil feels on the skin, there’s a big – and welcome – difference!

To make it more use-able it’s recommended to add 1-2 other ingredients in, and whipping it up with some air in there also makes it easier to achieve good coverage with.

It’s actually really easy to make a soft, silky, whipped tallow cream for the body. It’s also incredibly economical because it goes a long way and lasts a surprisingly long time. Especially if it’s applied while skin is still slightly damp after having a shower or bath. Applying it to warm damp-ish skin helps it spread further, so you can really use the ‘less is more’ principle with it which is a bonus!

Keen to try making your own whipped tallow body cream?

Here’s a quick video tutorial!

But what about the smell? Won’t it be too ‘beefy’?

To change the aroma you can add a good quality pure essential oil in during the hand-mixing, toward the end. Quantity will depend on the scent in particular and your preference as to how strong you’d like it to smell.

We usually add a subtle variety such as sweet orange, lemon, or lime. The essential oil can help reduce the ‘tallow-y’ smell the cream gives off initially. But we find that smell goes away pretty quickly anyway, once the cream has been rubbed into the skin.

So it’s up to you if you want to include essential oils in your cream or not.

Are you going to give making tallow moisturiser a go? We’d love to hear how you go with it!

Clint + Aimee

Primal Fitness + Health Coaches

Primal Influence

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Beef Fat for Better Health: Part 3

August 6, 2020October 13, 2021 / Primal Influence / 1 Comment

From making tallow to cook with to moisturisers… let’s look at the best ways to utilise this healthy wholefood.

How we utilise beef fat as food

There are 2 ways we like to use beef fat:

Raw mince suet sprinkled on some of our meat meals – usually on our mince and eggs or mince/liver/kidney and eggs for brekkie, with some pink salt. Or topped on a piece of rump steak.

Suet sitting between a juicy rump and fried pastured eggs

The fat melts on the just-off-the-fry-pan food and has quite a nice taste and texture.

If eaten totally raw and still a bit firm it can be quite chewy and stick to your teeth. Some carnivore-diet followers enjoy this texture but we don’t. You might, so give it a go!

As mentioned in previous posts (Part 1, and Part 2), beef fat in it’s raw state is said to be more nutrient-dense and bio-available than cooked fat (tallow) so it’s a good idea to add it to meals when possible to boost good calories, create satiety and increase energy levels.

2. Tallow to consume as is and to cook with.

We always have a jar of homemade tallow beside the stove to use on our two permanently-placed cast iron pans and to use on food we’re roasting or to dollop on our cooked meals.

Photo source: http://www.Instructables.com

Cast iron is a super healthy cooking surface and requires almost no cleaning (less washing up, always a nice thing when you don’t own a dishwasher and cook all meals from scratch!) and tallow with it’s high smoke point and high nutrients / low anti-nutrients makes a great seasoning and cooking fat.

You only need to add a very thin layer of tallow to cast iron pans to keep them seasoned and for cooking, so tallow goes a really long way and lasts a really long time.

How we utilise beef fat on our skin

By making and using tallow moisturiser!

Why is grass-fed tallow good for our skin?

Tallow closely mimics the fats and oils we have naturally in our skin.

This includes the fatty acids and cholesterol in the cell membranes of all our skin cells as well as those that sit in between skin cells, forming the protective barrier function of our skin.

Strong, healthy cell membranes help keep skin cells plump and well hydrated. It helps protect skin from moisture loss and leaves skin looking soft and hydrated. It will also help replenish any missing components in our skin’s barrier function.

Grass-fed tallow also contains fatty acids that closely copy the oils that we produce naturally as sebum.

As we get older, our skin slows down on the production of these oils that keep our skin soft, supple and youthful looking.

So, grass-fed tallow helps put back what time takes away.
Rejuvenating the appearance of skin, as well as smoothing out the look of fine lines and wrinkles.

Good quality tallow also contain essential vitamins such as fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K which are all really important for healthy glowing skin.

The other bonus is it’s high in essential Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids, with a ratio of 1:1, to help protect the skin and boost immune function.

Tallow moisturiser is super easy to make and an affordable natural skincare product, or you can simply lather on some pure tallow if you like, it feels so nice on the skin!

How else do we use tallow on our skin?

By making tallow soap (or a combination of coconut oil and tallow)!

Making natural soap is so good for our health and the environment, and is a great way to utilise healthy tallow. Especially with any tallow that went a little too far in the rendering process and ended up slightly over ‘done’. We like to label these containers “for soap” and keep in the fridge until it’s time to make a batch of about 24 bars.

Have you made natural soap before? It’s so rewarding and so so so cheap!

To get started with these you’ll need to buy yourself some grass-fed tallow or make it from scratch. Making tallow is definitely the less expensive option and the one we always choose.

Here’s a video on how to do just that!

Let us know how you go making your own tallow then stay tuned for the next post…

The next blog will include:

How to make tallow moisturiser

Until then, please let us know if you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you!

Clint + Aimee

Primal Fitness + Health Coaches

Primal Influence

Disclaimer:

NO information on this site should be used to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease or condition.

Beef Fat for Better Health: Part 2

July 23, 2020October 13, 2021 / Primal Influence / 1 Comment

A deeper look into this hugely underrated nourishing wholefood + comparing it to plant fat products

Why animal fats are better than plant fats

Plant oils are a staple in most pantries. Olive oil, canola, sunflower. Plus a lot of fridges these days have a tub of plant oil margarine on the shelf. Many of these products are touted as “good for lowering cholesterol”, being “heart-healthy” and healthy because they’re low in saturated fat.

If you asked everyone you know “Hey do you think olive oil is healthier than beef fat?” most likely at least 99% of them would say yes. That’s the sad reality of sneaky marketing and BS health advice… it teaches the majority of the population the wrong thing!

One of the main reasons these oils and products are classed as “heart-healthy” is because they contain Phytosterols.

Science shows they can lower cholesterol but there’s a couple main problems with this…

We actually NEED cholesterol for basic cell function, to prevent depression and more.
We’re consuming Phytosterols in larger then recommended quantities due to the inclusion of grains and legumes in the diet.

High ‘bad’ cholesterol is often misdiagnosed as most conventional practitioners don’t fully understand it or the levels we need to have to be ‘healthy’. Dr Chris Kresser has some great info on this and busts a few common myths around cholesterol. Read more here.

Another issue with Phytosterols is they may actually contribute to heart disease, not prevent it. Read more here.

Also, plants contain toxins. How they function in the human body is not how they function when tested in a lab. They contain more anti-nutrients than nutrients. Animal meat and fats don’t.

And how often have you picked an olive from a tree and squeezed out oil to use on your meal or in cooking? Never! Because to extract oil from olives the olives have to go through rigorous processing including high-temp heating. That’s never healthy!

Meat and fat from animals contain almost no anti-nutrients and lots of essential nutrients that are bio-available for the human body. Meaning we can process and use them efficiently without negative effects. This is ideal when eating food. Traditionally, plants were used more for survival situations, to get humans by between animal kills. Dr Paul Saladino talks a lot about this in his podcast interviews and on his website. We highly recommend his book The Carnivore Code too!

And… saturated fat is healthy, in particular, long-chain saturated fats from ruminant animals. Vegetable oils are higher in poly-unsaturated fats which cause insulin resistance. Dr Paul Saladino talks about this in this Facebook video.

The environment impacts

Mono-cropping is a major problem to the environment and it’s the method used for the production of most plant oils. Unless regenerative agriculture practices are used, farming large-scale crops extracts nutrients from the soil. Regenerative agriculture does exactly what the name suggests… it regenerates the land and improves the eco-system!

Sure, factory farming of cattle is bad. And this goes back to the point in the last blog post of why choosing grass-fed animal products from quality producers using healthy farming techniques is so important.

Diana Rogers – Sustainable Dish uses the message “it’s not the cow, it’s the how” and has some amazing information on the environmental impacts of unhealthy animal farming vs healthy methods, and also the problems with mono-crop production. Her book and doco Sacred Cow are out soon and we’re so excited!

Healthy pasture and environment = healthy cattle

We’ve experienced first hand the benefits of regen ag for both the health of the environment and ourselves. We work part-time on a biodynamic beef and egg farm run by a former bio-chemist (aka scientist!), have hosted educational farm tours there, and have learnt all about the farming practices used and eaten the food produced there. When you understand the full cycle from how an animal is raised to how it can nourish the planet and us, you appreciate the importance of consuming good quality animal products!

Another environmental factor to consider, particularly with consuming the fat, is how much waste is reduced. Apart from eating note-to-tail being a natural and traditional thing for humans to do, from a modern-day viewpoint with how much waste, landfill and pollution we’re tackling we need to incorporate ways to reduce these. If a butcher is including the suet and other fat from an animal in his product range that means less food he’s throwing out. It means we’re making the most of the animal that died for our benefit, and we’re putting less waste into landfill.

Beef is one of the most highly produced and consumed foods in Australia and the supermarkets stock mostly lean cuts or the cuts with minimal fat included, you never see tubs of the fat for sale, so imagine how much goes to waste that isn’t being used in products. Beef fat is actually quite hard to get a hold of, when it should be easy to access because it’s so easy to utilise and so healthy! This has to change!

So there are some good reasons there to do some more research on the benefits of animal fat vs plant fat and make the switch.

Do we consume any plant fats?

Yes, but very rarely now and only good quality. We buy organic olive oil and organic macadamia oil that we really only use for raw purposes and not even on a weekly basis. We used to make paleo ‘mayo’ regularly with olive oil but since going mostly carnivore created an animal-fat alternative… ghee-daise! Using grass-fed ghee to make a sort of hollandaise! Find the recipe here

The next post will include:

How we utilise beef fat (as food and on our skin)
How to make tallow

Until then, please let us know if you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you!

Clint + Aimee

Primal Fitness + Health Coaches

Primal Influence

Disclaimer:

NO information on this site should be used to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease or condition.

Beef Fat for Better Health: Part 1

July 13, 2020October 13, 2021 / Primal Influence / 1 Comment

An intro to beef fat + why it’s important to consume

We’ve really upped our beef fat intake since we went mostly carnivore in 2019 and enjoying continually learning about why it’s such a smart move. It’s an incredibly health fat to consume (and use topically which we’ll get into in later posts) but so feared because of the stigma still attached to it in regards to ‘fat being bad’ and ‘saturated fat is harmful’.

Us humans need to be rid of that old outdated and just plain WRONG way of thinking once and for all, do our health a favour and get on the good fat train!

We’re creating a 4-part blog series covering the benefits of beef fat for our health inside and out, how to consume and use it including how to make natural skin products!

This first post is all about why beef fat is so healthy.

The health benefits of good quality beef fat

Beef fat from good quality sources (i.e. grass-fed, organic, bio-dynamic farms) contains essential nutrients the human body needs to functional optimally and it’s thought that raw beef fat in particular contains more ‘bioavailable’ forms of nutrients, then say cooked/rendered fat (e.g. tallow).

What does “bioavailable” mean?

The term “bioavailability” means biological availability and it describes the proportion of a mineral or vitamin in a food, which is available for absorption and utilization in the body. In nutritional science, the bioavailability of vitamins and minerals depends on your nutritional and physiological status. This means that a high nutritional status of a specific vitamin or mineral limits the absorption in the gut and vice versa. The bioavailability of vitamins and minerals is defined as the part of the substance that is absorbed and ready to use. (Sourced from NJORD Nutrition)

Beef fat, raw or rendered, has been proven to contain bioavailable nutrients but we’ve heard a few carnivore diet experts (including doctors) theorise that bioavailability is better in its raw state.

We’ll go into more detail in later posts but there are basically three types of beef fat:

Raw suet – the fat from around the organs such as the kidneys
Raw fat – the fat from other areas of the body
Tallow – any fat that has been rendered

Tip: tallow should be yellow in colour. That’s a sign it’s from grass-fed cattle.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the types of beef fat let’s talk about specific nutrients their benefits to our health.

Beta-carotene: a natural form of Vitamin A – an essential nutrient – which the body can convert to Vitamin A as needed. Beta-carotene is also an antioxidant, important for protecting the body against free-radicals. Grass contains beta-carotene, grain does not. So grass-fed beef fat is where it’s at!
Vitamin A: the human body converts beta-carotene to Vitamin A as it requires and is the safest form of this Vitamin because supplements can actually cause more harm than good.
Vitamin D: helps the intestine absorb nutrients, prevents osteomalacia and rickets, regulates blood pressure, and assists in the absorption of calcium in the body, that prevents osteoporosis or arthritis. The best form of this is from direct sunlight daily, but foods can help boost our levels safely, as opposed to supplements.
Vitamin E: a group of eight compounds called tocopherols and tocotrienols which reduces cholesterol and the risk of developing diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer
Vitamin K: good for the heart, immune-boosting, bone density, cognitive function, dental health, quicker healing, reducing PMS symptoms and more.
Selenium: a powerful antioxidant, may help prevent some cancers, can help prevent heart disease, important for mental health, thyroid health, immune-boosting, and can help reduce the severity of Asthma.
CLA: Tallow is rich in conjugated linoleic acid, a fatty acid which, according to some studies, can help burn fat.
Omega-3: helps fight depression and anxiety, improves eye health, promotes brain health during pregnancy and in early life, can improve risk factors for heart disease, can reduce symptoms of ADHD in children, reduces inflammation, may help prevent cancer and many more diseases and symptoms. Beef fat does also contain Omega-6 which is often suggested as something to avoid. It’s all about getting a good ratio of both Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, which is easier to do when the beef and fat is from grass-fed cattle, as grain-fed meat and fat is extremely high in Omega-6.

The nutrients in beef fat help improve the immune system.

Beef fat is also an excellent form of energy for the human body to use, as opposed to sugar, caffeine and empty carbohydrates

Lean vs fatty cuts of meat

With the importance of balancing out Omega-3’s and 6’s it’s ideal to consume fatty cuts of meat only from good quality sources (farmers using organic and grass-fed/finished methods) but when you can’t access grass-fed beef then that’s when you should opt for the leaner cuts and try to add good quality grass-fed FAT to your meal to make up the fat content.

Keep some grass-fed tallow or suet handy to cook in and top your cooked meats with. We always have minced raw organic suet in the freezer and a jar of rendered grass-fed tallow beside the stove.

The other element to consider when choosing which cuts of meat to buy is the gelatin-factor. This could easily be a post on it’s own as there’s quite a lot of detail with this but basically, we need gelatin with our meat when we consume it and we need to include offal because over a long time if we’re only consuming muscle meat (lean or fatty) such as chicken breasts, thighs off the bone, rump, backstrap etc we can easily get high homasistine levels in the blood which contributes to making us more susceptible to the big diseases such as Diabetes, Heart Disease etc.

This is due to the lack of glycine – a crucial amino acid needed when consuming protein.

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It’s found in the collagen and cartilage which is not available with muscle meat alone. The liver produces a small amount but not enough to sustain us, we need it mostly from our food.

An easy way to add it in is to use pure collagen and gelatin powders from grass-fed beef. Collagen powders dissolve without needing to be mixed with hot liquids, you can place a spoonful in cold water and it’ll dissolve perfectly. Gelatin that gels is for making other foods such as fruit gummies or even egg-noodles.

Watch our gelatin video series for all the info you need about gelatin and collagen.

We have a few gelatin recipes on our website you’re welcome to use.

Bone broth contains all the nutrients required to break down meat properly to it’s a good idea to drink some with a muscle meat meal. It contains collagen, gelatin and a stack of essential vitamins and minerals that all work together.

Make your own (ideal) or buy organic bone broth from health food stores, online, local markets etc.

So the bottom line here is we can become pretty darn healthy from eating good quality meat, fat, and collagen daily. But not on their own – they work best in the body when consumed all together.

The next post will include:

Animal vs plant protein/fat
How to source good quality animal fats
Environmental benefits of using animal fats

Until then, please let us know if you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you!

Clint + Aimee

Primal Fitness + Health Coaches

Primal Influence

Disclaimer:

NO information on this site should be used to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease or condition.

Good health takes more than popping a supposed magic pill

April 12, 2016May 11, 2021 / Primal Influence / Leave a comment

I often say that the easier we can obtain things we want in life and all the ways we can receive instant gratification these days is making us sicker, weaker and less likely to set and achieve long-term goals. It’s something I’ve experienced personally and know that quite often it can lead to people setting unrealistic expectations because we generally expect a certain level of results right away.

Our lives are filled with so many time-saving gadgets, plans and devices – apparently all aimed at helping improve our health, work situations, fitness levels, mindset and happiness and our relationships. But at the end of the day, by using these tools are we really saving ourselves time, or just setting ourselves up for a more miserable existence in the future?

One thing I’ve become mindful of with my own health and fitness goals is the importance of resisting the urge to seek the quick fix or the easy answer. Sure I could go out and exercise my guts out every day at a gym filled with unnatural equipment, count steps I walk using a pedometer, record calories I eat using a phone app and possibly then get the results to help me fit the look of the stereotypical Personal Trainer image, but at what cost to my physical and emotional well-being? A broken down body, adrenal issues and appearance hang-ups? No thanks.

Instead, I now focus my sights on my long-term health, fitness, and happiness. Achieving my goals in a slower but more sustainable and less stressful (mentally and physically) way. The hard work I put in now, over a longer period of time (by hard work I mean taking things slower, honoring what my body wants and needs in the form of exercise, nutrition, and mindset) will ensure my health and fitness levels will stay at a higher level well into my future and I’m less likely to have really high ups and crazy low low’s (or “yo-yo living” as I like to call it) across all aspects of my lifestyle.

Instead of seeking the quick fixes and overnight results for health and wellness problems that probably didn’t come about as quickly as overnight, let’s look at the big picture, take our time and set and achieve goals in a more long-term manner.

Part of our vision at Primal Influence is to encourage people to look at their long-term health and fitness as a journey, not a destination. You are in this very point in your life right now because of the actions, or lack of actions, you have taken in your past right up to now.

Clint

Mentor + Trainer

The glutes: a holistic approach to strengthening them

February 26, 2016May 11, 2021 / Primal Influence / 3 Comments

“Gluteus maximus is the largest of the gluteal muscles. The general functions of the muscle are believed to be extension of the hip, adduction, and external rotation. There is also evidence pointing to the significant role of glute max in force closure or compression stabilization of the SI joint. While there is some debate in the medical literature of the role of glute max, it is fairly obvious it is an important hip stabilizer.” -Breaking Muscle

At the Aware Relaxed Connected workshop on Sunday, hosted by one of our mentors and friend Craig Mallett, we learnt a terrific glute activation technique. Yes, there are a lot of them out there; any physio, chiro or PT will have half a dozen you can do on your lounge room floor. And that’s great. And we’ve been given and tried many ourselves over our years within the health and fitness industry as both coaches and also as clients/patients.

What we liked about Craig’s approach on the weekend though was the truly holistic (whole-istic) perspective. Instead of just lying down to perform a select few leg raising exercises, or some standing up, Craig explained the usefulness and true functionality of activating the glute muscles in ALL movements and angles. From getting up off of the floor in all different ways, standing upright and bending in different directions, to walking up and down stairs. Why set limits?

That was the theme of the day really… move well in ALL directions. Be a ‘generalist’ with movement. Adapt to different positions, angles, heights, environments so you can better handle being in different positions when needed, or when you want to. This really blew our minds! By the end of the day we were happily overwhelmed with this new (but not really ‘new’) concept and have been incorporating this idea into our everyday lives ever since.

So anyway, back to the glute relevance!

The workshop started with us practising glute activation in all sorts of different positions, heights and movements. We want to share a couple of them with you guys that you can easily start implementing and hopefully benefit from.

SOME GLUTE ACTIVATION IDEAS FOR YOU TO TRY:

Standing position with straight back: bend knees slightly, keep back straight, lean forwards bringing your chest toward the ground. When you feel your butt is at full stretch stop. Then, concentrating, squeeze or ‘turn them on’ and as you continue to keep them switched on, slowly raise your torso back to standing position but take it slightly further by pushing your pelvis forward to finish. Repeat this 10-20 times to get the hang of it.

Standing position different angles: this is similar to the previous movement but instead bend the knees at different angles, feel the stretch in one or both glutes and stand to upright position squeezing them the whole time. Play around with every possible angle you can come up with, including a rounded back.

Standing from sitting on the ground: sit on the floor/ground in all different positions, activate your glutes as much as possible in each position, then get to standing position keeping the glutes on the entire time. This is a tricky one and takes a lot of concentration (which the brain likes because the brain and body work best together, not separately).

Step ups: this one you can do with stairs in your home (we often use 2 at a time to get the full glute stretch) or anything stable you can step up and down with. Simply place one foot up on the step, concentrate on squeezing that glute and stand upright keeping it squeezed the entire time. Do this a few times on one leg then swap to the other leg. Then play around with different foot positions and knee angles. If you automatically step up with your knee facing inward, try breaking that habit and step up with it outward a few times. Change the step height when you can and vary this movement up as much as possible.

Easy peasy!

We’ve been making a conscious effort to do these at home. It’s hard, they’re not something we were doing previously so to add the movements into our day has taken some mental effort. But even when we think of it sometimes and just do a few standing with straight back, or we remember to stand up with glutes on from sitting on the floor watching TV, then that’s something. And that’s all you need to do. Practice as many of these as you can manage and you’ll be doing your body some good. Especially your pelvic stabilisation, which is so important.

Remember to check out Craig’s website Aware Relaxed Connected for lots of great resources, grab the current videos on the Tutorials page and check back regularly for new videos. We urge you to spend a few bucks on them and benefit from the content. All the money Craig receives from the purchase of videos and workshop attendance goes toward him learning more from his own mentors and teachers. Eventually that seeps back to all of us.. so it’s really a positive cycle!

Let us know if you have any questions and have fun with your new movements!

Clint & Aimee

5 things we’re grateful for today:

Attending Craig’s brilliant workshop last weekend
Forest play time
Meeting new lovely people at all of our recent free library talks
You guys reading our blog posts!
All the cherry tomatoes we’ve been picking from our container garden lately

This blog provides general information and discussion about medicine, health and related subjects. The words and other content provided in this blog, and in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice. If the reader or any other person has a medical concern, he or she should consult with an appropriately-licensed physician or other health care worker.

Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this blog or in any linked materials. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 000 immediately.

The views expressed on this blog and website have no relation to those of any academic, hospital, practice or other institution with which the authors are affiliated.

Kids and nature… it should be a no-brainer

November 18, 2015May 11, 2021 / Primal Influence / Leave a comment

Well.. you and I might realise that kids absolutely need nature for their health and happiness, but sadly.. not everyone does.

So we are on a mission. To organise a FREE screening of the doco Project Wild Thing on the Sunshine Coast, with the hopes of reaching lots of parents, educators and anyone else who cares about the health of our kids’ so we can spread the awareness around nature being so crucial for children’s long-term health and wellness.

One of the ways we’re doing this is by raising money at events we hold. On Sunday we held the first… a FAMILY FUN AND PLAY DAY at Point Cartwright. We had about 20 or so people there over the course of the morning and it was a great day out!

We started with a group of kids and adults joining in on Clint’s Primal Play session on the beach; all barefoot, all getting sun and fresh air, all moving their body’s naturally, and all having lots of fun!

Luckily the sun came out for the occasion and with it came some humidity so the location was perfect for play on the sand then a swim to cool off!

Clint took everyone through a variety of natural movements and games including Up Down No Hands, Hip Tiggy, Partner Tug O War, Crab Walking, Crawling, Tiggy and more. It was suitable for all ages and all fitness levels and it was great to see so many people from all walks of life joining in and having a great time!

2015-11-18 07.41.40

After the beach fun we headed to the park, found some shade and set up for a Sensory Connection activity.

It’s easy to have a good time outside in nature when playing at the beach or going for a bushwalk and to head home feeling happier and rejuvenated but most people don’t realise we can get even more health benefits from nature, that can have a longer lasting effect, by making more of a connection with what’s around us.

I wanted to show everyone how they can use nature and simple natural objects to fully indulge the senses and get a more beneficial and uplifting experience.

I’d gathered some items I found on the beach and took the group through a full sensory indulgence session to help them learn to engage their brain in a positive way, without electronic stimulants, in a way that’s really natural and innate for humans. Everyone seemed more relaxed but also more focused afterwards which was terrific and hopefully it’ll help them get more benefit from nature in the future.

Next… it was time to FEAST!

We were lucky enough to have some fabulous food donated by some very generous and kind local small businesses and we all enjoyed a delicious healthy picnic lunch!

Paleo sausages from Off the Bone Butcher and onion on the BBQ with some Free Organic coconut oil went down a treat!

It was great to see everyone chatting and getting to know each other. Des from Off the Bone Butcher and Andrea had a good chat, while Des’s partner Naomi and Matt from Peachester Farm pastured chickens formed hopefully a new working relationship behind. Matt provided us with a few roast organic chooks which were absolutely amazing!

With the whole point of the day being to raise money for Project Wild Thing we were delighted to see the jar filling up with cash! It helped too that Off the Bone Butcher donated a $50 voucher to raffle off!!

Dig in everyone, grub’s up! Salad from Sunshine Organics, paleo sausages, organic roast chickens and yummy bars from At One.. what more could we ask for?!

My plate! So good, I was so full after!!

And the winner of the raffle is… <drum roll> … Brenton! Who happens to be Clint’s client and was at another event next to ours but bought a ticket on the day!! Congrats Brenton, enjoy your meat buy!

We packed up at about 2pm, with full bellies, pink noses from all the sun, and hopefully all feeling happy! With $150 in the jar, Clint and I are really grateful for everyone who came along and their generosity, including our amazing sponsors and the families who joined in on all the activities. Thank you everyone!!

Just $350 left to raise now, so if you’d like to contribute you can keep an eye out on our Facebook page for more events to come along to, or book in for the Primal Trial Pack with Clint of 2x 30 min intro sessions for $10 here
Find out about the movie here

Help spread the word so we can get this screening happening on the Sunshine Coast soon.. share this blog post with your friends, family and colleagues!

Thanks for your support 🙂

Aimee x

Recipes: Jelly + Jaffa Panna Cotta

September 14, 2015September 15, 2015 / Primal Influence / Leave a comment

The Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival on the weekend was fantastic! We were thrilled to be a stallholder and even more so that I was invited to do a Gelatin Cooking Demo as well. What an opportunity!

Yesterday I showed a group of about 40 people how to make Orange Juice Jelly, and Jaffa Panna Cotta – 2 of my favourite gelatin dishes.

Not only are they healing and nourishing for the body, but also easy and affordable to make and delicious! What could be better?!

I promised the attendees I’d provide the recipes for these, so here they are…

JUICE JELLY

You’ll Need:

2 cups organic juice (pulp-free, or not if you want fruit/seed texture)

1-2 tbsp pure beef gelatin powder (depending on how wobbly or firm you want it)

Optional: raw honey or other healthy liquid sweetener (I love Hello Honey Australia honey, it’s beautiful!)

Do this:

1. Pour juice into a medium-large saucepan sitting on the stove, but without turning the stove on

2. GENTLY and SLOWLY sprinkle gelatin powder, from the tablespoon, evenly over the surface of the juice

3. Let it soften for a couple of minutes until gelatin becomes translucent from absorbing the liquid. This process is called ‘blooming’. The thicker the liquid being used, the more of a ‘brainy’ effect will occur!

4. Once all the gelatin seems to have softened turn the stove to a medium-high heat and grab a whisk or fork ready to stir and finish dissolving the gelatin granules as the liquid heats up

5. The gelatin won’t take long at all to finish dissolving. Once it has, remove saucepan from the heat and either pour through a strainer if you think you ended up with some clumps of gelatin, or straight into a container. If making jelly cups for a party, pour into those. If just making a batch of jelly to take serving sizes from later, pour into a large container (glass is best)

6. Place in the fridge to set over a few hours. The smaller the container/s, the quicker the setting process will take, and it’ll depend on how cold your fridge is also.

7. If making jelly cups, pretty-them-up a bit by adding grated or diced fresh fruit and/or a dollop of pure Ayam coconut cream to the top as a garnish and for added flavour and texture

Jelly cups are perfect for school and work lunchboxes and jelly in general is a terrific snack or with part of a main meal. I actually have banana jelly for brekkie every morning along with an egg yolk and some grass-fed lamb or beef mince.

To make fruit jelly simply bloom the 1-2 tbsp to 2 tbsp water (instead of the juice as per recipe above) in a saucepan. Follow blooming and dissolving process then pour into a blender with fruit (banana works great) and set in the fridge as you normally would. Easy! Banana jelly does go brown in the fridge but the soft fluffy texture and taste are not compromised.

To make lollies: simply use 2 cups of liquid to 4 tbsp gelatin powder!

JAFFA PANNA COTTA

You’ll Need:

1 tsp – 1 tbsp pure beef gelatin powder (depending on how wobbly or firm you like your panna cotta)

400ml 100% pure coconut milk (or cream if you want a thicker, richer result. I use the Ayam brand)

2 tbsp pure organic cocoa powder

2-4 tbsp raw honey (depending on how sweet you want it) (I love Hello Honey Australia honey, it’s beautiful!)

Rind of 1 orange, keep some aside for garnish

½ tsp pure vanilla essence

Do this:

1. In a small or medium saucepan add 1 cup of coconut milk, orange rind, cocoa, honey and vanilla

2. Whisk to combine

3. Turn the heat off JUST BEFORE the mixture bubbles then leave there for the flavours to infuse

4. In a shallow container add the remaining coconut milk

5. Using a spoon to gently sprinkle the gelatin powder on top of the coconut milk, aim for an even layer completely covering the surface of the milk. This method is called ‘blooming’

6. Let the gelatin mixture rest for about 10 minutes. In this time the mixture on the stove would have infused

7. After 5-10 minutes, heat the mixture on the stove again being careful to not let it bubble, as with before

8. Remove it from the heat and whisk the gelatin mixture into the warmed mixture

9. Once it’s completely combined, pour through a strainer into a large container or individual serving containers then place in the fridge to set

10. It will take 2-3 hours to set depending on how cold your fridge is and size of panna cotta. Cups will take less time than one big container full.

11. Once it’s set, use a knife or spatula to scrape around the edges to make it easier to remove then turn the container/s upside down onto a serving plate until set panna cotta comes out. It has a jelly/pudding-like consistency so it should come out with no breakage if it’s set properly

Alternative you could serve it still in the containers

12. Garnish with remaining orange rind then serve!

There you go, 2 really healthy and easy sweet dishes for you to make and enjoy!

If you live on the Sunshine Coast feel free to grab some of the ingredients from our Primal Pantry catalogue – pretty much all are less than RRP and absolutely all are quality.

If you’d like to grab ALL of my gelatin recipes you can purchase the Sweet Goodness with Gelatin e-book, which contains everything I know about gelatin and all the sweet recipes you’ll ever need so you can make any recipe you come across online, and be creative with flavour combinations for the techniques you’ll learn.

The Paleo Kitchen Creations e-book Dan the Aussie Paleo Chef and I created together also has an amazing melting cheese recipe using gelatin and doesn’t contain any dairy or nuts. It’s incredible!

To learn to make loads of other healthy, easy and affordable paleo-friendly dishes book in for a private cooking workshop with me! They are always a lot of fun 🙂

Please let me know if you have any questions about gelatin or paleo living in general feel free to get in touch, I’d love to hear from you!

If you were at the demo yesterday.. thank you for coming and I hope you enjoyed it!

Aimee x

5 Things I’m Grateful For:

1.A fabulous weekend at the Real Food Festival

2.Educating people on the health benefits of gelatin

3.Primal Fitness Class on today, because I can’t wait to play!

4.Roast veggies because they’re just so easy and delicious

5.Forest play time

Recipe: Easy Paleo Honey No-Soy Chicken

August 5, 2015 / Primal Influence / Leave a comment

At our last meetup on the weekend Clint and I took along a few paleo goodies for t he picnic, and the honey soy chicken I made was a huge success.

Especially with my little friend Lachy who has a lot of food allergies and often can’t eat much at meetup picnics. I always try to include something he can have and this time he scoffed down the chicken, with a big smile on his cute little face. So I thought I’d better get this super easy, tasty recipe up on the blog for more people to enjoy!

Remember… my recipes are pretty much always really simple and easy, I’m not into overly fancy meals because often a lot of ingredients with a lot of processes involved in putting them together can be confusing on the gut. So if you like my kinda view of cooking then you’ll like my recipes.. I hope 😉

HONEY NO-SOY CHICKEN

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius

You’ll need:

2 x free-range chicken breasts

3 tbsp coconut amino (for nightshade-free I use Matakana range available here, but otherwise use Niulife or a similar brand)

2 tbsp local raw honey

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: crushed garlic, ginger

Do this:

For the time-poor folk…

1. Cut chicken into strips or cubes and place in a deep oven dish

2. Add the coconut amino, honey and salt/pepper

3. Get your hands in there and mix thoroughly so the sauce is coated evenly over the chicken

4. Place in the oven, uncovered, and set the timer for 20 minutes. Then at 20 minutes get the tongs or a large spoon and mix the chicken around so the inside raw pieces move to the outside and all chicken cooks properly

5. Place back in the oven for another 20 or so minutes or until all chicken is cooked through

6. There’ll be a lot of liquid at the end but I like using this as sauce for pouring over veggies as it can be placed in a container in the fridge and used later, or it can be simmered down on the stove right away to thicken up. Add some arrowroot to create a honey soy gravy

7. Store chicken in an airtight glass container in the fridge. It’s great served cold! If you include the liquid, you’ll find it’ll become jelly once refrigerated, yay!

Now for those with more time up their sleeves…

1. Follow steps 1-3 as above but then place in a container in the fridge for a few hours to marinate. This will infuse the flavours into the chicken more

2. Then cook and store as mentioned above

How easy is that!?!

It will go great sided with cauli rice, veggie mash or mixed into a salad
Enjoy 🙂

Aimee

5 Things I’n Grateful For Today:

1. A fun meetup at the Glasshouse Mountains and people enjoying my food

2. The 30 mins of magical #NakedSunTime I just got on the balcony

3. Wrestling Clint yesterday and finally getting him to the ground, woo!

4. My ‘Cowgirl’ mug cos it’s cool!

5. Country music

Forest Therapy: using nature to heal the body and the mind

June 25, 2015 / Primal Influence / Leave a comment

On Sunday we held our second Forest Therapy Workshop, this time in the Mapleton Falls National Park. It was just me, Aimee was still a bit unwell (yes, Forest Therapy probably would have helped!), and I met with 4 lovely ladies at 9am, all eager to go for a relaxing and rejuvenating walk through the bush.

I see a tree like this and of course I’m going to climb it!

What exactly is Forest Therapy anyway?

Taking a walk in a forest, or “forest bathing” as it’s often called, can have some amazing effects on our mind and body. The scientifically proven benefits of Forest Therapy include:
• Lowers blood pressure
• Lowers pulse rate
• Reduces cortisol levels
• Increases vigour
• Reduces anger
• Reduces depression

From a personal experience making Shinrin-Yoku part of our weekly practice we’ve noticed:
• Deeper and clearer intuition
• Increased flow of energy
• Increased capacity to communicate with the land and its species
• Increased flow of life force
• Deepening of friendships
• Overall increase in sense of happiness

Remember to look up! The view upward to the canopy is something special

Miyazaki of China University said forests gratify the five senses by providing the sounds of birds, cool air, green leaves, the touch of trees, wild plants and grasses. “The atmosphere of forests makes people calm” he said. Based on studies on the effects of forests, the public and private sectors are now promoting forest therapy.

Stuck in the office and can’t get outside? Even looking at a picture of a forest has been linked to reducing blood pressure, stress and improving cognitive performance. So one tip is to bring up an image of a forest onto your computer screen every hour or so, look at it for a couple of minutes, focusing on relaxing your mind and body, breathing deeply and imagining yourself in that forest. Take note of how you feel afterwards 🙂

These old trees can make us healthier and happier

Because Aimee and I are big fans of this little-known therapy we hold workshops so we can invite others to experience and enjoy the benefits. I really enjoyed the workshop on Sunday; all the ladies seemed to as well and all have said really positive things since. Such as Amanda who gave this feedback…

“Refreshed, invigorated, regenerated and inspired is how I feel right now. A short wandering walk in the company of some pleasant folks which ended with some meditation beneath the green canopy. Like a balm for the mind, body and soul, it seems a little dose of forest therapy is just what I needed right now. Clint presented himself with thought and care and it was evident that he truly believes in what he does. Certainly worth the two-hour drive up from Brisbane. Thanks guys!”

Take a deep breath and breathe in the beauty

The workshop was just $6 which included an info sheet for everyone, a can of coconut water from a local supplier, and the total profit went to charity! Until the end of June we’re supporting the Red Cross Australia Nepal Region Earthquake Appeal and so far we’ve given them over $30 which isn’t much but hopefully it’ll help in some way.

Me barefoot and balancing (as usual!) and one of my guests enjoying the surrounds

And hopefully the attendees on Sunday can now use Forest Therapy to improve their health and happiness well into the future. We’re so lucky here on the Sunshine Coast to have a variety of forest, dotted all over the region, to take advantage of.

The nice view over the Sunshine Coast hinterland

And the bonus? Forest Therapy is FREE! Sure beats popping a pill doesn’t it!

If you’d like to find out about our next Forest Therapy Workshop so you can come along, just register for our Primal E-News newsletter so you don’t miss out!

Now go find a forest and get some therapy 🙂

Clint

5 Things I’m Grateful For:

1. Facing the Flinch – something I’m new to and really enjoying

2. Getting people moving

3. Family and friends

4. Winter Solstice has passed! Longer days, yay!

5. Forest time