OMG!!!

Honestly, I don't think I'm overreacting just because I've had nothing to eat all day. I didn't even feel hungry at 7:30 pm when I started cooking. That is waaay late for me, but I was busy today. Getting Shit. Done.

I'm typically a recipe gal. I don't do well without the boundaries and guidelines a recipe provides but that is typically just a starting place for me. My real strength lies in doctoring recipes. I always cook them to the letter as much as I can the first time but then once I have a baseline, I like to critique and evaluate them for ways to make them better.

This is more of a mashup than a recipe edit.

I found this great recipe at Damn Delicious and it is fabulous on it's own. I think it's really cute how she says "this is just one of those dishes to make on your “cheat day". LOL.  Little does she know, she's made a perfect #lchf #keto recipe that pretty much anyone doing #lchf or #keto could eat every day of the year.

Garlic Butter Shrimp

Ingredients:

•     8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
•     1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
•     Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
•     5 cloves garlic, minced
•     1/4 cup chicken stock
•     Juice of 1 lemon, or more, to taste
•     2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions:

•     Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium high heat.
•     Add shrimp, salt and pepper, to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pink, about 2-3 minutes; set aside.
•     Add garlic to the skillet, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in chicken stock and lemon juice. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in remaining 6 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until melted and smooth.
•     Stir in shrimp and gently toss to combine.

Now, this is fabulous on it's own but add it to another #lchf recipe I've recently found and it's a match made in heaven!

Butter Fried Green Cabbage

Ingredients:

• 1½ lbs shredded green cabbage
• 3½ oz. butter
• salt and pepper

Directions:

•         Melt butter in a frying pan.
•         Sauté the shredded cabbage on medium heat for at least 15 minutes or until the cabbage reaches desired color and consistency. (I go for fairly singed)
•         Lower the heat a little towards the end. Stir regularly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

So much buttery goodness!!!

Seriously, do yourself a favor and try it.  It may just be your new favorite thing! This is definitely going in my weekly rotation!

OK, I've got to admit; I didn't think I would like this. Using chia can sometimes come with textural results you weren't expecting. But I needed something different for breakfast and after trying it today, I'm looking forward to having it again tomorrow!

I used a very ripe banana, so ripe I almost changed my mind and put it in the compost but, I thought what the heck and tried it anyway. The result is sweet deliciousness! I also put it in the food processor since hand mixing just wasn't getting the consistency I wanted. The results were perfect. After setting up overnight, it's not slimy, or gritty, or too thick as some of the commentors mentioned.

This is a little higher in carb than I like to shoot for in a meal but for a change of pace, and as long as you don't eat too much in one sitting, it hits the spot.

Found at lowcarbhighfatrecipes.com

Chia Seed Banana Breakfast Pudding

Ingredients

1. 1 Can Coconut Milk full fat
2. 1 Medium or small size banana, ripe
3. 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
4. 1/2 tsp Salt
5. 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
6. 1/4 cup Chia Seeds

Instructions

1. In a medium size bowl mash the banana until soft enough to stir.
2. Add the remainder of the ingredients and stir until combined.
3. Cover and put in the fridge overnight (or at least 2 hours)
4. Enjoy!

By Vala Vincent

This is one of the better #lchf recipes I've found lately.

First, it's quick. I started with uncooked chicken breasts and it still took less than 30 minutes to make.

Second, it's easy. While the chicken is cooking, mix everything else together, heat it up and when the chicken is done, mix it into the soup. Done. Doesn't get much easier than that.

And if you've been missing buffalo chicken on your #lchf diet like I have, this will satisfy that craving!

From I Breathe I'm Hungry:

Low Carb Buffalo Chicken Soup Recipe

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 3 Tbsp butter
• ⅓ cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
• 4 cups chicken broth
• ½ cup Half and Half
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ¼ cup celery, chopped (optional)
• 1 Tbsp blue cheese dressing (optional)

Instructions

1. Combine the cream cheese, butter, hot sauce, chicken stock, and Half and Half in a blender and puree until smooth. Transfer to a small saucepan and cook until hot but don't let it come to a boil. Just before serving add the shredded chicken, celery and blue cheese if using. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.

And with an approximate nutrition breakdown per serving like this:
406 calories, 27g fat, 5g net carbs, 29g protein, it's the perfect #lchf #keto recipe.

Enjoy!

I think the term processed foods is way too generic for a lot of people to understand. I was reading an article the other day that said "it's important to remove processed foods from one’s diet to keep as many toxins out as possible". What do you think of when you hear that term? I just kind of glossed over it like a lot of people probably do.

I like this definition from Healthy Eating SF Gate:

You can determine whether a food is processed by looking at the ingredient list. The longer the ingredient list, the more processed a food is likely to be. Processed foods are usually found in the center aisles of the grocery store and are more likely to contain ingredients that you are not able to recognize or ingredients that you wouldn't have in your kitchen. Avoid foods that you wouldn't be able to produce or make yourself at home. Stick to unprocessed, natural foods, mostly found on the periphery of the grocery store, such as vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat and other single-ingredient foods.

Here is a sampling of what processed foods are:

• Pasta
• Cereal (even the healthy kind)
• Bread 
• Granola bars (yup, even the healthy ones)
• Crackers, cookies
• Dried fruit (unless you make it yourself)
• Margarine
• Any mixes or instant foods - any "just add water" type foods
• Fruit juices, soft drinks, drink mixes, flavored water
• Convenience foods, pre-made meals, such as microwave meals and frozen meals. (I know, I used to advocate some of these. I've learned!)
• Candy, candy bars, snack cakes, snack mixes, jerky, chips
• Microwave popcorn
• Fast food, pretty much all fast food
• Salad dressings, sauces
• Anything labeled “light”, “low fat” or “fat free”
• Atkins and Weight Watchers foods. Any brand that sells a product to fill a "diet" niche.
• There are many, many more

Do you know what this list is? It's about 80% of what's available at the grocery store.

Not all processed (read: boxed and bagged) foods are horrible. There are some redeeming items like un-roasted, un-salted nuts. These come in a bag but they are healthy overall.

The main thing to look for is the number of carbs. That's really all you need to check, the rest is sort of irrelevant, even the sugar levels because if it's got high sugar, it will have high carbs as well.

If an item has more that 10 carbs per serving, find an alternative! A ketogenic diet has a max carb intake of 20 carbs per day. A Low-carb diet is 50 or less.

If you have a serving of spaghetti noodles for dinner, you are already at 40 grams! Just for the noodles alone. Instead, you can have a bowl of spaghetti sauce (homemade is best!) with meatballs and maybe some zuchinni zoodles and you're only looking at 10 grams (give or take depending on brands) for the whole meal. All of the flavor is in the sauce anyway. 

I think the more labels you read with this carbohydrate criteria in mind, the more you will see boxes and bagged convenience food as, "not food". Because they are not. They are sugar, fillers, flavoring, and chemicals. That's about it.

Sugar, and by default, carbs, are killing us. Very, very, very, slowly but insidiously. So slowly that it's easy to pretend that they aren't the culprit. But, once you hear this information, once you know that there are studies that support this idea; if you hear this and don't take action to lower your sugar/carb intake, then I feel you have opted for suicide.

Type 2 diabetes is preventable, and reversible. It is not inevitable and I don't really think it's genetic. It's more a matter of inheriting the behaviors that cause it. (Please note, I am not a Doctor, these are my opinions based on my personal experience). There is a high rate of diabetes, obesity, and other types of disease in my family. I however live very differently than they do and I do not have any of these same disorders and I don't intend to get them, you don't have to either.

In summary as related by the Diet Doctor:

1. Don’t put sugar in
2. Burn it off

So, knowing that there is a course of action that you can take to prevent or reverse diabetes as well as other diseases and all you really have to do (simplified version) is eliminate sugar and starches from your diet...the next time you stick a doughnut in your mouth, what you are really saying is, I don't care about my health, and that the doughnut is better than living a disease free life.

You can't play ostrich with your health, it will catch up to you.

Good advice from Ditch The Carbs on how to avoid insulin resistance:

• If it says “light”, “low fat” or “fat free” it must stay in the grocery store – if they took the fat out, they put carbs and chemicals back in
• Eat real food – real food does not come in a box and no one should need a label to tell you it’s ‘natural’
• Eat when you are hungry. Don’t eat when you are not – no matter what the clock says
• No grains, potatoes or sugars – most grains are highly processed, high in carbs, fortified

Insulin resistance is really what Diabetes is all about. In essence, insulin resistance is your body's toxic reaction to eating too many carbs. You eat too many carbs, your body produces insulin and if you do this continuously, you can push your body to the point that you become resistant to it. The only way to stop or prevent this process is to eat a low carb, high fat diet or at a minimum, low sugar, low carb.

It's such a small price to pay to be healthy. Far less expensive then diabetes, for sure.

My husband has an unusual job. Not unlike husbands who get deployed in the military, his job takes him away from home for months at a time and then he returns for an equal amount of time. To say the least, it is a very disruptive lifestyle.

When he's home, it's like he's on vacation and by extension, I tend to treat it that way too. We're celebrating him being home, we stay up too late, eat and drink too much and then when he leaves again, I find myself spending the next few months getting my diet back in check.

This time around my whole goal was just not to gain any weight while he was here. No going up means no coming down which means no roller coaster, no yo-yo.

Guess what?! I did it!!!

More proof that the low carb high fat diet is successful and sustainable. Even more so than using it to lose weight when he's gone. That's actually pretty easy. To be able to say that I didn't gain any weight while he's home is practically a miracle. 

We've been busy remodeling our house while he's home and that has kept us very busy but I have not been exercising...at all. A couple of dog walks here and there but for the most part, its the diet that is keeping me at my goal weight.

So, needless to say, I'm sold on #lchf and plan to keep at it. It's been so much easier than counting calories. It's easier to recover from a cheat day, it has been providing me with other health benefits as I mention in this post, and it's not difficult to maintain when eating out.

I wish I could sell some of my family members on this idea. There are several who are obese and diabetic and I know this would change their lives but sadly, they are also very closed minded.

All I suggest is if you are truly looking to improve your health on all levels, give #lchf a try. It will probably take 30 days before you see any major differences and it may take longer than that to break some of your other bad habits but if you can stick with it, I know you will be pleased.

One of my favorite motivational resources is Steve Pavlina and he introduced me to the 30 Day Trial. I've used this method several times, sometime successfully, other times not. Sometimes for permanent changes, other times not. If you ever feel like you need a change, this is a good way to give it a solid try.

Pretty much every site I've run across that talks about low-carb, high fat and/or Ketogenic eating suggests Bulletproof Coffee as a good way to get your daily fat macro. I tried it and it does suit that purpose but it totally ruins the coffee experience for me.

I like my coffee black, plain, unadulterated, whatever you want to call it, anything else and it's not coffee. So if you usually put creamer and flavoring in your coffee, Bulletproof Coffee is the way to go for your daily dose of fats.

For me? I created Bulletproof Cocoa instead. It's perfect for a snack, or a replacement breakfast meal. I find I can go about 5 hours after this without being hungry.

Bulletproof Cocoa

• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp. butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
• dash of cinnamon 
• stevia or sweetener of choice

Heat over low heat in saucepan and mix with a stick blender until frothy.

Nutrition:(according to Cronometer)
Energy: 420.1kcal Protein: 2.8 Net Carbs: 5.8 Lipids: 43.3

 

I'm loving my low carb lifestyle. The food is full of flavor, satisfying, and for the most part, eating low carb is even easy in restaurants. The only real challenge I've run into is my husband. He hasn't done the research I have and he's still convinced that he needs the carbohydrates but, at least for him, he typically burns enough of them in a day that I can't really argue with him about it.

The challenge has been this, we love to cook. Cooking has always been a team sport/source of entertainment for us.  We like to try new things but there are a handful of favorites that we've established and of course, they are high carb. He keeps trying to default to these and I keep trying to push us away from them. A few of them have substitutions that can be made to make them low carb but not all and I can tell he's feeling kind of cheated. 😟(Sorry, Love.)

When I'm doing the cooking it's easy. He'll eat pretty much anything I put in front of him. But when he does the cooking, I feel horrible for rejecting or complaining about not being able to eat something he's prepared.

It's funny because really, low carb is simpler than what we usually prepare. Just some meat and some vegetables, and I'm happy. No need to spend 2 hours in the kitchen making something fancy. Maybe that's the part he misses.

Apparently, I'm not the only one with this problem. I found this article over at the Paleo non Paleo blog. 27 Ways To Live With Your Non-Paleo Spouse. A lot of it I'm already doing and it looks like just about the only thing I can do at this point would be to do 100% of the cooking and shopping and meal planning. Not quite sure I'm up for that just yet.

Something I read in the article was actually quite surprising to me and I didn't even consciously realize my intent...I want him to be low carb too. Not just to accommodate me. I really do think it's the healthier way to go. Carbs are junk, and I want both of us to be as healthy as we can. Now that I've realized that my goal is conversion, not just acceptance, I think I can make more progress. First thing is to make a new list of favorites and go-to recipes. That may require I do the majority of the cooking for awhile, but we'll get there.

Number 10 on the list was also an eye opener. "Don’t encourage non-paleo (in this case high-carb) eating". The last time we went to the store together, I got the meat, veggies, and dairy items that were on the list and then I said, "Are there any carbs you want?" There weren't any on my list and I thought I was being fair...if I hadn't asked though, we probably would have gotten home before he even realized there weren't any. So, I guess in the future, I just won't ask but of course if he makes a request, I'm not going to deny it. It is still his choice to be high-carb if he wants.

For now. 😉

There is a good article by Libby over at Ditch The Carbs with some good information about myths people who don't know seem to think are true regarding low carb diets. I'm not going to reiterate the article here but I will respond to the specific points made with my own experience and observations.

1. We eat no carbs and we restrict fruit and vegetables: I find that I eat way more vegetables than I used to and feel this is a good thing. Also, according to my diet diary I am able to get my daily allowance of vitamins just through vegetables, I hardly eat any fruit at all. As the article mentions, this is by choice, one orange practically fulfills my entire daily target of carbs so I just choose not to eat them. 
2.  We eat far too much meat and protein: This is an area I have trouble with. My protein target is set to a moderate amount but I find it's really easy to go over. One chicken breast has all the protein you need for the entire day. As long as I keep my carb intake low, I try not to worry about this number too much but I still keep my target low so when I do go over it's not too detrimental. Meat with every meal is typically overkill.
3.  Our diet isn’t varied: The statement "A low carb diet crowds out junk" is absolutely true. Personally, before I started with #lchf at least 75% of my diet was carbs. (You should plug your numbers into Cronometer sometime, you'll be surprised) Crackers were a particular weakness of mine. Now, I'm not even interested in crackers. I see them as "not food". I'll use a celery stick for dips and snacking now which is one more vegetable I wouldn't have been having normally.
4.  We are restricted to what we can eat: In the vein of "not food", I don't actually view most of the products on the store shelves as food anymore. All of the brightly colored boxes and bags with marketing printed on them? Not food; carbs, which is essentially sugar and fillers, nothing more. My shopping list has three things on it, meat, dairy, and veggies, and I'm perfectly happy with what I can make from these three categories of food.
5.  Low carb isn’t sustainable long term: I've only been doing #lchf for about 3 months now. Prior to that my main weight control technique was calorie counting. While it got me into a great habit of recording everything I put in my mouth, it was tough to maintain. I was always trying to slip in sweets and other high carb foods (or drinks) that are full of calories and my day would be shot and I would be hungry. I'm not hungry on lowcarb and I don't crave the carbs anymore. This is totally sustainable for me.
6.  We are tired because we need carbs for energy: It did take me awhile to adjust from burning carbs to burning fat. I had a period of extreme fatigue while I was transitioning but it was temporary and now I'm on a much more even keel both energy-wise and in my mental health. I don't have desperate "hangry" moments anymore and I can go longer and do more physically than I used to be able to do.
7.  Low carb is another fad diet: That is exactly what western medicine, the beauty and diet pill industry, and the sugar industry want you to think, so they can make a fortune off of you.  All I can say is try it for yourself and see the results.
8.  All that fat will give us heart disease: The article goes over the science, all I know is how much better my whole body feels.
9.  We don’t eat enough fibre: Not according to my diet diary. The only days my fiber is low is when my carbs are high and my veggie intake is low.
10.  Ketosis is dangerous: Again, I'll let the article go over the science but I believe this is a misconception. I have had no negative side effects...at all.
11.  Our brain needs glucose as fuel: Maybe so but it doesn't have to get what it needs from ice cream, cookies, or pasta. 

I LOVE THIS SOUP!

I got this recipe from over at ruled.me a site that focuses on ketogenic weight loss based on the premise that "health starts in the kitchen". I love that and I agree 100%!

This is tasty and hearty and keto. The creamy, rich broth is so satisfying I've probably made this 3 times in the last month. It's quite easy to make so, enjoy!

Sausage and Kale Soup

• 1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, ground
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried rubbed sage
• ¼ to ½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• ½ medium head cauliflower, cut into small florets
• 3 cups kale, chopped
• ½ to 1 tsp. sea salt, or to taste
• ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

 1. Heat a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add ground sausage, breaking up the meat. Cook, stirring occasionally until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes.

2. Using a slotted spoon, remove cooked sausage and allow to drain on a plate covered with paper towels. Discard drippings, but do not wash pan.

3. Melt butter over medium heat. When bubbling subsides, add onion and carrot. Cook until onion begins to brown on the edges and becomes somewhat translucent.

4. Stir garlic into onion and carrot mixture. Cook one minute. Add red wine vinegar and cook until syrupy, scraping up browned bits-about 1 minute.

5. Stir in oregano, basil, sage and red pepper flakes. Pour in stock and heavy cream. Increase heat to medium high.

6. When soup reaches a simmer, add cauliflower and turn heat down to medium-low. Simmer uncovered until cauliflower is fork-tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in kale and cooked sausage. Cook 1 to 2 minutes longer, or until kale wilts and the sausage is reheated.

7. Season to taste with salt and pepper. The amount of salt needed may vary due to variation in brands of broth.

Three things motivated me to start looking into low carb eating. The first was common sense.

I'm not the kind of person to wait around until I have a problem to take action. I like being proactive. And I'm also a bit conspiracy theorist. I don't trust that Western Medicine really has our best interests in mind, I think it has the money in it's pockets in mind the majority of the time.

So I believe that taking care of myself as naturally as possible is the best approach. My back hurts? I do some yoga. I have a  stuffy nose, I grab my neti-pot and my coconut oil. I focus my eating on nutrition and it's been working for me. My immune system is strong and my body is pretty healthy. (As long as I keep up my good habits, I do slip sometimes).

At any rate, I got to thinking about diets and how if you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes,  you are put on a low carb diet to reverse the affects. At least that's what I thought happened, the more I research it, that is not what Western Medicine recommends even though there is evidence that it works.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends you eat "healthy". It was a huge red flag for me when in order to find out what that means, you have to actually purchase a food plan from them. WTF?

Fortunately for me, I don't have diabetes, my research has been based on how to avoid it since it seems like it's become the latest fashion anymore; everyone has it. People in my family have it.

The third motivation for me was cancer. Again, I don't have cancer, I want to avoid it if possible. Like most other maladies nowadays, it seems like it's not if, but when you end up with it. I don't buy it.

Again, looking at diet, I was intrigued to find out that ketogenic diets have been used in cancer treatment with success. And even Dr. Mercola says:

From my perspective, it's nothing short of medical malpractice and negligence to fail to integrate this type of dietary strategy into a patient's cancer treatment plan (along with optimizing vitamin D). A ketogenic diet along with intermittent fasting can be easily integrated into whatever cancer treatment plan you decide to follow. Personally, I believe it's absolutely crucial, no matter what type of cancer you're trying to address.

That said, remember that a ketogenic diet, in which you replace carbs with low to moderate amounts of protein and high amounts of beneficial fat, like avocado, coconut oil, butter, olive oil and macadamia nuts is recommended for everyone, whether you have cancer or not. It's a diet that will help optimize your weight and health overall, as eating this way will help you convert from carb burning mode, to fat burning.

Well, there you go.  Only time will tell but it seems to me it's typically easier to avoid problems than to try and fix them...I think I'll keep it up.