Bacon, dark meat and zero carbs…what’s not to love? So easy to make.
A Calorie Is Just A Calorie, Right?
No, it isn’t true: A calorie isn’t just a calorie. The quality of the calories is far more important. Need proof? Here’s your tweet of the day courtesy of Dr. Ted Naiman (if you don’t follow Dr. Ted’s tweets you really should).
January Reading: The Case Against Sugar
My first read of the new year, The Case Against Sugar by the man whose done more to influenced the nutrition debate over the last 10+ years than anyone else, Gary Taubes.
I try avoiding sugar as much as possible. It jacks up my blood sugar and insulin levels too much. It’s why I don’t eat fruit (with the exception of the occasional berry).
The only way to really avoid it is to not eat any processed foods — it’s loaded with sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup or the more than 50+ names sugar goes by. But is sugar really the new tobacco?
Today I start Gary Taubes’ new book, The Case Against Sugar. As readers know, I’m a huge fan of Taubes. His Why We Get Fat is the book that saved my life and set me down my ketogenic path.
Taubes did a great job taking down the bad science behind the idea that dietary fat (saturated fat in particular) was causing heart attacks, obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and recent growth of cancers. Looks like he’s putting the spotlight on the real culprit.
Healing My Body With A Week Long Fast
I’m kicking off the new year with a 7-Day Fasting Challenge as a way to heal my body. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net and phasinphoto.
I’m ringing in the New Year with a week-long fast. Crazy? Not really. I’m a believer in fasting and it’s many benefits like: lipolysis, boosting mental capacity, reducing insulin resistance, and resetting your set weight point.
Intermittent fasting helped me rediscover what it feels like to be satiated by stablizing the hormone leptin (the hormone signals the brain that you’re full).
However, the big driver behind this 7-day fast is autophagy – the cellular cleansing process. According to Dr. Jason Fung, autophagy is the “body’s mechanism of getting rid of all the broken down old cell machinery (organelles, proteins and cell membranes).”
Now all cells in our body are programmed to die after a certain number of divisions. That’s apoptosis. Autophagy takes place at the sub-cellular level. Basically only parts of a cell need to be purged and replaced. Dr. Fung compares this to replacing car parts rather than the whole care.
Fasting not only stimulates autophagy (clearing out the bad), but it increases growth hormone so our body can produce new cell parts. Double bonus! Read More
Dear News Media: Saturated Fats Are Healthy, Fatty Fast Food Isn’t
Why do the press equate healthy fats with fast food? Most news reporters and editors are intellectually lazy. That’s why you should always question any health “news” you read.
This is one of those subtle things that the news media does that really annoy me. The New York Post published a short news story about a study out of Norway showing that saturated fats are healthy.
Awesome! However, the opening paragraph of that story is wrong. “Fatty foods” are not necessarily good for you. After a bit of eye rolling on my part, I continued reading and was pleasantly surprised. The rest of the story seems spot on about healthy saturated fats.
What really caught my attention was the photo the editor chose to use. A greasy, triple stack cheeseburger. Really?
It completely undermines the news in the story.
Anyone reading that story who buys into calories in/calories out is going to think either: 1. The story is “fake news” or 2. I can eat a big ass cheeseburger and lose weight.
Why choose a photo that conjures up unhealthy fast food in one’s mind? The only thing potentially healthy with that burger might be the meat (and only if it is 100% pure beef). Everything else in that burger is highly processed and should be tossed.
The photo is so misleading. The story doesn’t say eat fast food burgers all you want. Healthy fats like butter, cream and healthy oils are specifically mentioned.
Here’s a novel concept, why not depict the actual healthy fats mentioned in the story you are publishing? It’s not that hard to find in Shutterstock.
If your job is to provide news to the public, why half-ass it?
Weekly Weigh-In: My Pity Party Is Over!
My 3 month sabbatical from stepping on the scale is over. Thanks to a lot of self-pity and too many sugary desserts, I’m up 10 pounds. Time to kick my LCHF way of eating into high gear.
Sometime during the last few months I made the decision to cut myself some slack and not worry about stepping on the scale. Since I was dealing with my cancer diagnosis, giving up on the idea of getting pregnant, surgery, radiation treatment and recovery, the last thing I needed to focus on was stepping on the scale every week.
Of course that meant I probably wasn’t as diligent with my diet as I should have been. Oh, sure, I always cooked low carb, high fat foods. But we ate out a lot and I wasn’t my diligent self. And more often than not I’d order desserts — something I never do.
I fell into the old habit of rewarding myself with food.
But I wasn’t really rewarding myself. I was feeling sorry for my lot in life. I justified those tasty sweets with the idea that it was “OK to live a little … I have cancer, after all.”
Ugh!
I really felt the wrath of my bad eating decisions. And I don’t mean the 10 pounds I put on. Read More
September Food Challenge: The Whole30
My monthly food challenge is back. This time around I’m trying the Whole30.
I planned to temporarily give up dairy in August. Unfortunately I have a lot more of it in my fridge than I first thought. With September right around the corner, my dairy stores are pretty much gone. So it is a good time to start my monthly food challenges once more.
Which leads me to the Whole30.
I’ve thought about doing a Whole30 challenge, but the idea of giving up dairy just seemed more like madness. I mean, cheese is just too damn awesome. And butter! No one is taking my Kerrygold away.
But here I am, months later taking a hard look at dairy.
Since the Whole30 doesn’t allow dairy, I decided to give it a shot. Staying ketogenic is easy with the program. What really sold me on the idea is that I don’t have to give up my Kerrygold completely. I can turn it into clarified butter (which is allowed!).
And of course this means I get another health/cookbook book to read!
So today I’ll work on a Whole30 compliant menu and head out to the grocery store. The recipes I’ve spotted look really good. I just need to stay within my keto guidelines.
Keto Friendly Egg Salad
Nothing like a keto friendly meal to break a fast. Egg salad, butterhead leaves and glorious bacon. Yum.
Last night I whipped up the Aktins’ egg salad recipe. It was the perfect way to break my fast this morning (30 minutes after a few olives). Now I’ve never been a fan of egg salad. Growing up most of the time my dad just got some from the store. It always smelled overwhelmingly eggy to me. But then again as a kid I was a very picky eater.
Thankfully I’m done with being “too picky.” Although I think my hubby might not quite agree with me on this point.
Anyway, the recipe is very simple and delicious. My favorite part is the celery. That might seem strange as I unconditionally love eggs. But the celery adds a great crunch and texture.
I added 3 large Boston butterhead leaves and thick bacon for a grand total of 3g carbohydrates.
Egg Salad on Boston Butterhead Leaves with Bacon
Macronutrient Breakdown – 77% fat, 20% protein, 3% carbs
- 1/2 C Atkins’ Egg Salad – 2.1g total carbs (0.3g fiber)
- 3 Large Boston Butterhead Leaves – 0.9 total carbs (0.6g fiber)
- 3 Slices Thick Center Cut Bacon – 0 total carbs
Recovering From This Weekend’s Carbopalooza
Six weeks since my surgery and I’m officially getting back into the healthy eating business. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net and Mister GC.
This weekend the hubby and I visited some friends at a cabin in West Virginia. We haven’t seen them since my diagnosis and they thought it would be a great chance for me to rest, relax and heal. Before going I made the decision early to not sweat the food choices and it was a good decision.
The food was home cooked and tasted great. I ate low carb when I could but I didn’t beat myself up if I strayed. I mean, when a cute 12-year-old offers you (a fellow baker) a brownie she made herself, it’s hard to refuse.
Now that I’m back at home I decided to start the week with a two-day fast. What better way to kick this weekend’s carb monkey off my back and jump into ketosis?
Following the fast I’m doing a pretty simple ketogenic food plan that’s high fat, moderate protein and very low carb. This is a real test as I’m significantly lowering my carbs and limiting my protein and dairy. I’m still eating 20g of carbs daily, but I’m counting total carbs rather than net carbs.
Oh and of course no alcohol or coffee either.
You can check out my menu for this week. I’m still tweaking it…why not as I have 2 whole days to finalize it. I’m not thrilled with the total carb count for Friday’s lunch, but hey I really do want to work in an awesome ketogenic BLT! Maybe Friday night’s dinner becomes fat and protein only.
That might work.
Changing Up The Diet
Fat bombs are back on my menu as I look for ways to increase healthy fats into my diet.
Since I now have a target weight and start radiation treatments in the next 30 days, and feel it’s time to do some tweaking to my diet. I’m still eating LCHF, but I’ve decided that once my body is in ketosis, I need to consistently stay there for a while. So basically I’m moving to a ketogenic diet.
Embracing Keto!
We’re still in the early stages of studying the impact of ketogenic diets on cancer, but the results are very encouraging. Eating a diet that’s high in fat, a bit restricted in protein, and very low in carbs switches the body from running on glucose to ketones. Cancer thrives on glucose, but it can’t live on ketones. In fact, some studies have shown it to shrink tumors.
Of course, those studies were done on mice or terminally ill cancer patients using a ketogenic diet that’s around 90% fat, 7% protein and 3% carbs. I’m not doing that. I’m shooting for 75% fat, 22% protein, 3% carbs. Considering my diet is now 65%-70% fat, it seems doable.
Ketones, Insulin and Calories…Oh My!
I’m making a few tweaks in my diet. But changes are also coming to what I track. Read More