Still doing the diet for the most part: scrambled eggs in butter, orange juice, milk, coffee with cream and organic cane sugar (did you know that if your sugar just says ‘sugar’, then it’s most likely from gmo beets?), and protein like beef or lamb with a glass of milk and oj. The addition of those drinks really fills me up nicely, and takes away any craving for sweet things later in the day. In my coffee I put the Great Lakes gelatin powder, and I think that’s what’s making my skin look so nice (it’s certainly not the vegetables I’m eating, because I’m not eating any!). Peat is not concerned with mercury so he recommends certain fish as good to eat, but for now I’m just sticking to sardines as I’m pretty sure they are low in Hg (EDIT: Ray does not recommend sardines because of the high content of PUFA). And they are the whole animal. I also eat liver every couple of weeks (grass-fed non-gmo source).

At night sometimes I eat ice cream – a healthful food due to its saturated milk fat and calcium and metabolism-improving sugar), though believe it or not I am not craving it too much now. Perhaps because I'm getting plenty of fat and carbs/sugar from the milk and orange juice.

I’ve noticed better skin, a warmer body, an increased pulse rate. These last two were what was most important to me, because for years I’ve been needing sweaters and jackets when others are in t-shirts. My sleep is pretty good, my digestion is fine, and a few times I’ve put my hands on my face and my hands are warm. Great progress.

So I checked my Ray Peat notes from last year, and found the following.

Your daily protein can be around 80 grams. An egg provides 6 grams. A quart of milk 32 grams. I believe I’ve read that Ray drinks about three quarts of milk. This is for the calcium and the great high calcium/low phosphorous ratio. Meat-eaters who don’t get enough calcium are getting too much phosphorous, which leads to accelerated aging. Meat, fish and cheese are 20% protein so you can go for a pound of this per day.

Another tenet: eat fruit or other high carb food with your protein. This is why we drink oj with our eggs. According to Peat, you need the sugar to help metabolize the protein. Potatoes are high in protein too (although allergenic for many, including me – I feel stiff the next day). Cook it well and serve it with butter and cream. He talks about saturated fats – butter, coconut oil, and to a lesser degree olive oil – as being your go-to fats. Trash the PUFA’s – the poly-unsaturated fatty acid seed and nut oils – any oil that is liquid at room temperature besides olive oil. Similarly, stay away from fatty fish like salmon and herring, as these contain mostly unsaturated fat. Cod and sole are good fish to eat because they have marine minerals like selenium and are low in (the wrong kind of) fat.

This is the gelatin I put in my blended butter/coffee/sugar every morning. Very nice skin results.

Gelatin can be a major protein. Oxtail soup boiled for 4-5 hours with lamb shanks provide a good proportion of gelatin.

If you eat large portions of meat, consume 5-10 grams of gelatin at the same time so that the combined amino acids enter the bloodstream together.

Drink milk with no added vitamins – raw if possible. The added vitamins are usually toxic because of solvents used. (Unfortunately when I run out of my raw milk my only choice in the supermarket for grass-fed, organic milk has the added Vitamin D. But yea, it's grass-fed and organic.)

Eat cheese without enzymes, just animal rennet. Cottage cheese, if it’s just milk curds with salt, is also very good. There should be no additives.

Tropical fruits and juices are excellent. Juice them or buy them not from concentrate. But no berries (because of the seeds) or grapefruit (phytoestrogens) or bananas (unless truly tree-ripened, I believe).

A small apple and cheese makes a nice snack.

More healthful carbs would be potatos, yams, oats cooked for a very long time to reduce the phytic acid, which blocks calcium absorption. (I like seeing the Weston A. Price diet crossover here.) A raw carrot, preferable shredded, and eaten by itself, is a great anti-estrogen food. And the best cooked vegetables would be summer squash and bamboo shoots. But well-cooked kale and broccoli are also okay, although they do have anti-thyroid substances, especially when eaten raw.

No juicing vegetables because of the PUFA’s (polyunsaturated fatty acids), and no avocados. Likewise, no nuts or seeds. Major PUFA’s.

If you ixnay on the PUFA’s, then the body’s fat stores will begin to release them, so you may want to take a vitamin E supplement or some thyroid to protect the thyroid gland. This PUFA tissue release can take four or so years.

Salty cravings? Try frying tortilla chips in coconut oil. Or chicharones (pork rinds) with no additives but salt. And if you find a resource for these, let me know!

Another interesting tidbit I found about Peat is that he believes that excess estrogen causes the intestines to be sensitive to gluten. Gluten is one thing that I’ve been very confident about removing from my diet.

Salt helps the calcium from food get absorbed so sea salt it up. Peat even recommends salting and sugaring your milk. Stress hormones waste salt.

He thinks that the adrenals are usually robust enough, and it’s the thyroid that is underactive. Some benefit from taking T3, which is an anti-stress hormone, and helps produce energy. Increasing the metabolic rate is the most important thing.

A few days ago I noticed that I was getting a little depressed. I thought 'Oh no, I'll have to give up this diet!' I emailed Danny Roddy (the Peat Whisperer) who suggested making sure I was getting enough calcium, calories and sugar. I recalled that since running out of my raw milk, I'd been drinking a lot less of it. So I upped that - yes that was me chugging from a half gallon carton of Organic Valley Half n' Half out of my trunk's cooler in various parking lots on vacation last week - and I am back to feeling aok.

I just felt my pulse rate. It’s 75 (up from its normal 61 for many many years). I’m about three weeks into the diet. My hands are warm. I’ve got great energy. Thanks Dr. Peat!