Archive for Carbs

How to Get Slim and Fit in 2014

January 1, 2014 / / Comments Off on How to Get Slim and Fit in 2014

5 of us snorkelingWe’re back from Culebra – Happy New Year!  On the one hand, it’s so exciting, and on the other, it’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed, …again.  Did you come out different or better or changed, or are you the same as when 2013 started?  I know from emails that many of you want to change, but are struggling with the “how”.  Here’s an email that sums it up:

“Hi Debbie, i was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction…. i need some help. my weight is getting out of control again, and i know it’s because i’m not eating right and i don’t exercise enough. bottom line. and no magic pill is going to help me. i need to make a lifestyle change. i just need to. my problem is that i need to find something that is 1. easy to follow 2. won’t break the bank 3. i can still go out to eat on occasion and still enjoy myself when it comes to social functions 4. something i’ll WANT to do for the rest of my life 5. isn’t too drastic to the point where i’ll have to cook for myself and then make something different for my boyfriend – essentially, i want something that i can use for the whole family. and of course fancy dancy 30 item recipes that take hours to make aren’t on the single mother wish list either. i was looking at your website and see you follow paleo, maybe? ”

YES I can point you in the right direction:  make all your foods quality meats, fats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.  Shun grains and sugars, the body turns them into fats/triglycerides very easily, and you’ll get all the carbohydrates you need in the foods listed above. Don’t eat chemicals.  MOVE every day.  If you can join a gym, join a gym.  If you can’t, walk, do push-ups, follow YouTube workouts – there’s about a billion free ones.  Don’t make 30 ingredient meals:  meat, vegetables, butter/olive oil, salt and pepper.  Simple.

I LOVE that she says “no magic pill is going to help me”;  if there was a magic pill, we wouldn’t have 70% of our population overweight.  The same goes for gadgets and diet programs:  waste of money.  If you want to get healthy and lose weight, it’s ALL ABOUT YOUR MIND.  Easy to follow? Going out to restaurants? Cooking for a crowd? Paleo is the answer for me, because I believe to my depths that eating crackers, pasta, bread, soda, and convenience foods are poison to my body. When I travel or cook for a crowd or pack my lunch every day, there’s no struggle.  That’s the point you want to get to:  No Struggle.  Then it’s easy to pass up all the foods that make you sick and overweight.

How do you get to that point?  It’s what you fill your mind with.  Read books like Wheat Belly or Grain Brain (no time to read? get Audible or buy the books on CD);  read my blog, or Chris Kressers or Mark’s Daily Apple; listen to podcasts that are on LivinlaVidaLowCarb (kitchen, car, workouts, etc) from doctors and experts with the latest science. Order the Paleo magazine.  And here’s my biggie drum beat:  Plan Shop Chop Prep Pack.  You’re not going to “luck” into a healthy lifestyle and a healthy body, it’s only going to come with effort.  Pretty soon though, the amount of effort required becomes less and less as your brain changes from the “calories in calories out” model to ” food is medicine or food is poison” model.

You can’t change your body (permanently) unless you change your brain. Willpower is Very Limited; every diet ends with a binge.  Educate yourself about how your body works, and the effects different foods have on you. Make this a priority instead of “weight loss”.  Weight loss and Health are the SIDE EFFECTS of changing how you think/act/feel.  Want to work with me?  I can change how you think about food and eating; not in one magical conversation, but over several.

You can leave 2014 very very differently than you entered it if you realistically tell yourself that you’re going to take a whole year to re-educate your mindset. Be determined, be confident, be bold; 12 months sounds long, but it’s not.  Time flies and before you know it, a whole new you will be here.

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Mind/Body, Psychology of Eating, Question of the Week / Tags: , ,

Want to lose weight? Quit Eating Grains and Sugars.

December 7, 2013 / / Comments Off on Want to lose weight? Quit Eating Grains and Sugars.

debbie (12)I got a great email from someone new to the blog, and interested in weight loss.  She’s confused because her doctor gave her a diet handout that used the government sponsored “my plate” as a weight loss guide.  She’s discouraged because she feels she’s been eating pretty healthy, and actually very close to the “my plate” guide lines, yet she’s overweight and has just been labeled “pre-diabetic” according to her fasting blood sugars and A1C.  Hmmmm.  She only eats whole wheat or whole grain products, and often even chooses gluten-free grains.

She’s wondering how whole grains can be bad, and asked why I’ve advised people to avoid them when her doctor says they’re healthy.  I love this because it gives me a chance to dive into our Plan for Change:  change our body by changing our minds.  All behavior is belief driven.  If you believe that weight loss is just about math ( calories in / calories out), and you eat accordingly,  one of two things will happen:  you might lose weight, but you will probably gain all of it back plus a few pounds (that’s a statistic: more than 95% of everyone who loses weight gains it back), or,  (2) you won’t lose any weight at all.  That seems to be happening more and more these days as more and more people are “broken” after years of the Standard American Diet.

Your body’s not a math equation, it’s a chemistry set.  When you eat grains and sugars, and your blood glucose rises above normal, hormonal shifts happen that make weight loss IMPOSSIBLE and weight gain a CERTAINTY.

High blood sugar, which happens easily with grains and sugars, causes the release of Insulin, a hormone that stores and builds.  Insulin takes excess blood sugar to the liver, where it gets remade into triglycerides, or FAT, and then deposited into fat cells in the abdominal area.  Remember our mantra for the week?  “Grains and Sugars are deadly and fattening” ?  That’s no exaggeration.

In addition to fat deposit and weight gain, high blood sugar and high insulin:  suppress the immune system, cause high cortisol, suppress thyroid hormone, shrink brain tissue, make blood thick and sticky, create inflammation throughout the body, creates free radicals, inhibits cellular uptake of vitamins and minerals, damages artery walls, raises blood pressure, raises the “bad” cholesterol, decreases HDL, narrows the vasculature of the eyes, kidneys, feet, and brain, causes headaches, and causes depression.

That’s a short list, but it makes my point that Grains and Sugars are deadly and fattening.  Want to lose weight?  Go back to my statement, all behavior is belief driven.  When you believe grains and sugars are deadly and fattening, real change happens.  You can get all the carbohydrate your body needs for fuel from vegetables and fruit, which also come with whopper doses of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and fiber.  Check out my What I Eat page if you’re wondering what’s left when you cut out pasta, bread, and cereal.  Keep learning, keep reading, keep focusing, keep saying the mantras.  You really can change your body, but you have to change your thoughts first.  You can do this!

Category: Carbs, Looks Healthy But Isn't, Sugar / Tags: , ,

You Can Be Better By January, 2014, Or Not…. & More Gluten E Summit Facts

November 18, 2013 / / Comments Off on You Can Be Better By January, 2014, Or Not…. & More Gluten E Summit Facts

debbie (27)It’s been over a week now that I’ve challenged you to Change your Thinking if you want to Change Your Body; and I’m specifically talking about those negative thought patterns that I’ve heard so many people express:  I hate my thighs, if only they were thinner;  I hate my stomach; I hate my butt; I want to lose weight; If only I could lose 10 pounds…. etc etc etc.  Ask yourself how long you’ve been spinning on these exact same thoughts and how well they’ve allowed you to change.  How long?

Change doesn’t happen when you keep doing the “same old same old”;  negative thought patterns NEVER produce positive results.  Never.  Get your mind off of what you don’t like, and start focusing on improving yourself in your soul.  Seriously.  Focus on being kinder, gentler, more patient, more loving, more thoughtful.  Get your focus off your body (and calorie counts).  Use Mantras, Meditation, and Prayer;  write a quote on 10 or 20 sticky’s and post them all over: your mirrors, wallet, fridge, doors, car.  PRACTICE changing your mind.  Work on it.  It doesn’t just happen, trust me.

We had a speaker at church yesterday who’s a life long missionary, and a Mother Teresa fan.  He quoted her and I’m going to make it my quote for the week:  ” Find someone that no one else loves, and love them.”  This goes right along with “loving-kindness” meditation, where you don’t just pray for yourself and your loved ones, but for someone “neutral” and someone else you’re currently having difficulty with.  We’re not supposed to focus on ourselves so much, despite decades of advertising hypnotizing us otherwise.  Nothing good comes of that.

Here’s something I’m really into:  the way Science is Solidifying the Mind/Body connection:  eat flour/sugars, and you create a brain that ONLY thinks about flours and sugars.  As your body becomes unhealthier, and you become unhappier yet continue to eat flours and sugars, NOTHING CHANGES; the negative thought patterns continue, the addictive eating continues, the thoughts, the addiction and so on and so on.  Too addicted to think about quitting?  Fill your head with facts about what Flours and Sugars actually do beyond making you gain weight, because it’s pretty profound.  I hope I’ve persuaded you all to tune into the Gluten E Summit – what a wake up call!  It’s not too late to register and catch the final day presentations and listen to them in kitchen, your car, or during a workout.  Here’s some recent snippets:

From Dr. Amen, MD Psychiatrist

* Neuroplasticity, or the ability to Change Your Brain, has been a scientific fact for 10 – 15 years, but many doctors are still unaware and don’t practice/prescribe according to this.   We can make our brain Better or Worse through our Life Style Choices:  Food, Exercise, and Thoughts.

* Low Fat Diets and Bad Fats have horrible consequences for the brain ( because our brain is about 60% fat).  This applies whether you’re 2, 12, 22, or 82.

* There are MORE than 100 studies which show that Big Belly’s correlate with Smaller Brains.

* Genes are NOT as important as Behavior and Choices (Epigenetics).

* “Food is Medicine, or Food is Poison.”  You know I love that one!

* Gluten is Poison for most of the population. ( No human has the enzymes to break down the gluten proteins)

* ADD studies show 100% of people affected with this disorder show some level of improvement when Gluten and Casein (milk protein) are removed from their diet.  (Diet or drugs, diet or drugs???)

* “Why do we celebrate with Toxins?”

* The less insulin we need over the course of our life, the longer we live.  Insulin triggers many inflammatory pathways.  ( what triggers insulin?  Carbohydrates.  Not Fat. )

* Cancer uses Glucose (the breakdown product of carbohydrates) as it’s main fuel.

* Anyone with Thyroid issues MUST go Gluten Free.  Gluten affects the Thyroid in a myriad of ways, including inhibiting the conversion of the Thyroid hormone T4 to it’s active and usable form T3.

* 2002 Study from Journal Of Neurology:  Severe migraine sufferers (the study group were actually unable to work and on Workman’s Comp because of the severity of the migraines) were put on a Gluten Free Diet,   70% NEVER had another headache.

From Dr. Davis, MD Cardiologist (the Wheat Belly doctor)

* Heart Scans that measure Coronary Calcium Plaque show that once Plaque gets started, it grows at the rate of about 30% a year.

* STATINS DO NOTHING TO INHIBIT PLAQUE GROWTH.  NOTHING.  (don’t even get me started)

* What’s the biggest factor in Coronary Plaque?  HIGH BLOOD SUGAR.   He says if you have Pre-Diabetes, Diabetes, or Insulin Resistance, no drug in the world will stop the Heart Disease you’re nurturing with your high blood sugar.

* Main Driver of High Blood Sugar?  Wheat, Grains, and Sugar.

*Wheat, Grains, and Sugar also are the only foods that cause the body to create Small, Dense, LDL (the bad stuff).  The ONLY foods.  Small, dense LDL is sticky, and lasts up to a week in the blood.  This is totally different from big, fluffy LDL, which has beneficial side effects, like carrying essential fatty acids to our brain and glands.

* The Gluten Proteins in wheat are highly “opioid”, which makes them appetite stimulating and addicting.   Who’s addicted to meat?  No one.  Who’s addicted to foods full of flours and sugars?

*  If we continue on the path we’re on now, by 2044 the amount of money the US will need to treat JUST diabetes ALONE, will be MORE THAN all the tax revenue the Federal Govt collects.

* Yet, Main Stream Medical Advice/  Governments Health Advice is to eat a diet of 60% carbohydrates, many of them from “healthy whole grains”.

Quit thinking of food in terms of Calories In Calories Out, that’ll just lead to weight gain and horrible health.  It’s a wrong paradigm that’s made a lot of people a lot of money.  The Scientific Evidence against Grains and Sugars is overwhelming, and concrete.  Take your health into your own hands.  Ditch the grains and sugars, and eat Real Whole Foods.  Practice your Mantra.  You can be a whole different person by January 2014, or you can be the exact same.  It’s up to you.

Category: Carbs, Mind/Body, Psychology of Eating, RWF, Sugar / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

More Gluten Free Summit Snipits, and a Focus Reminder

November 16, 2013 / / Comments Off on More Gluten Free Summit Snipits, and a Focus Reminder

gluten e summitThe Gluten E Summit continues to impress, if you haven’t registered, it’s not too late, there’s still 3 more full days of FREE lectures by doctors and researchers who are at the top of the game when it comes to Preventative and Functional Medicine.   Dr. O Bryan, who’s at the helm of all this, has created a listening ability to access each of the lectures right through your email.  If you don’t have Stitcher or iTunes, that’s okay, you don’t need them.  Just click on the link and listen in your car, your home, the gym, where ever.

Here’s some highlights from the past couple of days:

“Main stream medicine does NOT have a monopoly on knowledge” ( this from Dr. Natasha, who has TWO MDs)

“Fat makes you thin, and Sugar/Glucose makes you fat.”  (all carbohydrates break down to glucose)

Two slices of Whole Wheat bread have more glucose and will raise your blood sugar HIGHER than Two Tablespoons of Sugar.  ( whole wheat’s not the health food it’s cracked up to be)

Gluten-Free Foods are a BIG PROBLEM.  They’re made with high glycemic flours (rice flour gluten free mini browniesshoots blood sugar up quicker than wheat flour), sugar, and chemicals.   They’re usually just another processed food.    (from me:  if you go Gluten Free, let it mean Real Whole Foods)

Gluten Free = Gluten Free.  Microscopic amounts of Gluten trigger the same Immune Response that large amounts do.

“Removing gluten is NOT Alternative/Functional/Holistic medicine;  it’s good medicine backed solidly by Science.”

Put Gluten and Sugar together ( for example, in a processed food like crackers, cereal, bagels…), and you’ve got the perfect storm for Addiction.  Chemicals are triggered that are “opioid-like”;capn crunch  the same areas of the brain that respond to drugs and alcohol light up.  Why set your kids up for a life time of the same battles you’re fighting, or worse?

“It’s become NORMAL to start the day with dessert: cereal, danishes, bagels;  this matters because Food is Information, and the information anyone gets from those kinds of foods is All Bad”

Everyone who lectures reminds us that reactions to Gluten don’t just happen in the Gut.  As a matter of fact, around 70% of all reactions happen in places OTHER THAN THE GUT:  the brain, the cardiovascular system, the joints, and the skin.  Several Neurologists who’ve spoken say that Gluten Sensitivity is responsible for a large portion of Parkinson’s, Bells Palsy, Shaking, Migraines, etc.    Our food has consequences!

And my favorite quote of the day:  “Your Body Is NOT a Math Equation (calories in calories out doesn’t work), It’s a Chemical Reaction.”   The food we eat triggers hormones, and they determine whether we store fat or burn fat.

throw bread awayWhich leads right into our Change Effort that I’m running through January:  Most negative thoughts about your body lead to a plan to reduce calories through diet or burn more calories through exercise.  None of this works:  not the negative thoughts, and not the diet and exercise program (that’s the calories in – calories out paradigm).   Check the statistics:  almost 100% of everyone who loses weight on a “diet” gains it back.  Want real change?  Change Your Thoughts!!!  Quit focusing on what you don’t like about yourself ( your thighs, your stomach, your weight), and start focusing on being a better person, having a kinder heart, fostering better relationships.  Use the Mantra “I practice being kind, not right.”

As for really changing your body?  Start thinking of Food in terms of the Effects it has on your hormones:  carbs encourage you to store body fat through the hormone Insulin; and the main two components that build your body structurally are Fat and Protein.  Feed your body what it takes to run beautifully, and be beautiful.  Eat Real Whole Foods.  Work on being in charge of your thoughts.  Our food matters, and our thoughts matter.  We have so much power, control, and choice over our life! There’s some people who climb into little boxes and stay there for days, they will their Respiratory System and Cardiovascular System to slow down – just to prove they can.  These people aren’t magic, they’re focused;  you can focus too!  Start practicing now and change will happen.     “I practice being kind, not right.”

Category: Carbs, Mind/Body / Tags: , , , ,

Gluten Affects the Neurological, Digestive, Immune, and Cardiovascular Systems

November 13, 2013 / / Comments Off on Gluten Affects the Neurological, Digestive, Immune, and Cardiovascular Systems

me on porchThis is going to be a fun post full of fun – and fascinating  – facts.  I’ve been listening to the Gluten E Summit ( which is free – you should be listening too) and madly writing down notes to pass on ( if you can’t listen).

If you’re thinking, “I don’t have problems with gluten” – You’re Probably Wrong!!  Most gluten symptoms happen OTHER PLACES THAN THE GUT:  the brain, the heart, joints, skin, etc.  Got headaches, depression, or swollen knees?  The chance that it could be caused by reactions to gluten are very high.  What about your children:  headaches, behavior problems, constipation?  Again, there’s a good chance it’s reactions to gluten.  You should just TRY eliminating gluten for a few weeks, or a month, and test what happens.   (Eliminating means “100%”, I’ll explain why in a minute)

The doctors and researchers giving the presentations have credentials that take several minutes to go through – they’re all experts who study the absolute most current research available, and use that research in their practice. ***** (This is significant; according to an Institute of Medicine report on the state of the US Health Care System, it takes “it takes 17 years for new knowledge generated by randomized, controlled studies, to be incorporated into practice; and it even then application is highly uneven.”  That should make you feel uneasy.  It makes me more determined than ever to be my own best health advocate.

Here’s some bullet points from Monday and Tuesday’s Summit Talks:

No human can completely breakdown the protein gluten in their digestive system.  No one.  We don’t have the right enzymes.  For some, there are little to no consequences, and for others, there are big consequences:  neurological/cardiovascular/immune/joints/gut.

Gluten reactions and high blood sugars are highly involved in the plaques that cause Alzheimer’s and dementia.   The Lancet Journal of Neurology says at least 54% of Alzheimer’s victims could have prevented their disease with different lifestyle choices.   54%.

Intestinal Antibodies to Gluten are there for at least 7 years before there’s any “villis-atrophy”.  Translation:  Just like with all disease, it takes years to cook/incubate/manifest, but damage is happening way before a diagnosis.

Very low HDL is a marker of Gluten sensitivity and Celiac Disease.

“It is Mythological and Perverse information that fats cause Heart Disease and that a Lack of Fat helps you lose weight.”

The Brain must have fat ( saturated, mono-unsaturated, and Omegas), to function properly.  Trans fats and an incorrect ratio of Omega 3/anti-inflammatory to Omega 6/inflammatory are  very damaging.

Vascular Disease starts incredibly early:  if the mother’s health or diet is compromised, it affects the fetus.  Around 30% of children and teenagers have measurable markers of Heart Disease.

We have control over our levels of inflammation by just cutting back on Carbohydrates from flours and sugars.   Get your CRP tested – it’s an incredibly accurate reflection of the level of inflammation in your body.

The Ideal Diet is High Fat/ Low Carb.

It can take 6 to 12 months to heal leaky gut, calm down antibodies to gluten, and eliminate symptoms.  Patience is a virtue – and a necessity.

Gluten-Free needs to mean 100% Gluten Free.  A little tiny bit of gluten triggers the same reaction a lot of gluten does.  

The scientifically proven connections between autism and gluten are profound.  Check out Liz Lipski and the Autism Research Institute to learn a TON.

That’s it for my wrap up, more soon.

Have you been remembering to focus on the mantra of the week:  ” I practice being kind, not right.” ?  Practice deleting negative thoughts from your brain.  Nothing changes when nothing changes, know what I mean?   Change happens when you do something different:  think differently, feel differently, focus differently.   Read my post here and here to get a feel for what I’m talking about.

If you spend time in the car or time in the kitchen, it’s a great opportunity to listen to podcasts and youtubes that improve your health, your focus, and your life.  Take advantage of all the FREE information put out there by prominent members of the medical community.  Because much of their advice stems from diet and lifestyle changes, and not pharmaceuticals (aka $$$$$), you’ll need to search it out.  This isn’t information that just lands in your lap or that you’ll hear from your GP; but it’s there and it’s incredibly accessible, and FREE.  Go for it!  And remember,  “I practice being kind, not right. “

Category: Carbs, Mind/Body / Tags: , , ,

Why I Eat Fat; Saturated Fat Is Validated AGAIN; and a Recipe

November 6, 2013 / / Comments Off on Why I Eat Fat; Saturated Fat Is Validated AGAIN; and a Recipe

debbie (44)I eat a pretty high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet.  Can I give you my Fitday breakdown?  No.  And I probably never will.  I counted calories and obsessed for YEARS.  All it did was make me crazy, and starving.  I learned about the dangers of carbs years ago when I read Protein Power and The Atkins Diet,  cutting back on bread and pasta wasn’t hard.  The reason for the craziness was that for a long time, I was Low Carb and Low Fat, because I believed that Fat Was Bad, and it would make me fat. That mantra had been drilled into my head.    Diet and low-carb “foods”, with plenty of vegetables and fruits on the side, were what I lived off of (during the week).  It kept my weight good ( weekday stringency combined with weekend binges), but I hated the binges, and the stomach aches, the nightly bloats,  and now looking back, my energy levels and moods were just okay.  A couple of years ago I dropped the “food products”, and incorporated fat, tons of it.  Literally, if my foods don’t haveIMG_2737 enough fat in them, I add it.  The results?  The most stable weight I’ve ever been (good bye binges), great energy, great mood, ( right Mark??), and ***a flat stomach that rarely ever bloats anymore.  I feel confident that I’m following a food plan that’s giving me Optimal Health and a Normal, Stable Weight, but I constantly run into or work with people who are deathly afraid of fat, and their fear is often compounded by their doctor’s 1970 advice to cut the fat.  Oh but the Tide is Turning  and I love it!

It seems like everyday there’s more scientific validation that Saturated Fat is healthy, and that decades of Main Stream Medical Advice has been Wrong.  If you have time to read a long article on some of the latest information, here’s a link to Dr. Mercola’s excellent post.  If you want the short version, here it is:  Saturated fat and Cholesterol have NEVER been conclusively linked to Heart Disease, ever.  When our Government decided to demonize fat, they relied on a study by Ancel Keys called the 7 Countries Study, which linked high levels of fat and cholesterol to heart disease.  The problem with using this as the basis of their Health Paradigm is:  There Were 22 Countries in the study – 15 of them didn’t fit the theory, so they were ignored.

Here’s a link to the British Medical Journal  that just published an article called “Saturated Fat is Not the Issue”.   Another testament to the power of High Fat – Low Carb, is that Sweden has developed NATIONAL DIETARY GUIDELINES proclaiming low fat diets not good for your health or waistlines,  and that High Fat diets  DO fight disease and obesity.   This was a total turn around from decades of previous dogma, which was pretty identical to our government/health care system dogma.  However, after reviewing 16,000 studies, the results were clear:  sugar and grains, (which break down to glucose and fructose), and trans fats are dangerous for your health and a disaster for weight loss; and Real Fats such as saturated fats and cholesterol, are  actually good for you.

Our body uses Healthy Fats to BUILD ITSELF.  Our brain is 60% fat, our heart, organs, and glands, are loaded with fat – on purpose by God.  Fat’s even part of our bones!    Fat doesn’t go rogue and clog our arteries.  That’s a really, really  incorrect picture.

What else is good about saturated fats?   They lower the bad, small LDL, and they raise HDL. They literally escort calcium and other minerals into bone to be assimilated.  They’re good for the liver’s health and actually protect the liver from NSAIDS and alcohol.     The surfactant of your lungs is lined with saturated fat; they contribute to proper nerve signaling, and several fatty acids have anti-viral/anti-bacterial properties that help the immune system.

The best thing about saturated fat?  Satiety.

before roastingLet me leave you with a recipe for Roasted Vegetable Soup, it’s delicious!  I’ve been making a version of this for the past year, never the same way twice, and it always comes out good.

Ingredients:  2 big sweet potatoes, a giant onion, a round squash, 3 big carrots, 1 big green, tart apple, 3 beets.  Scrub and cut everything but the squash into pieces.   Puncture the squash and roast it whole, scoop out the seeds after it  bakes.   I like to add a little water to the vegetables and cover with foil, that helps everything stay moist.   Bake at 425 for 40 minutes.   When it’s done, cool slightly; peel the skin off the squash, put all this into your food processor and blend til smooth.

Add the vegetables, about 6 cups of (any) broth, and a can of full fat coconut milk together in a big pot and start whisking, with the heat on medium high.    Next, whisk in 2 tablespoons coconut oil, 2 tsp sea salt, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1tsp cloves, a couple pinches of curry powder ( we like heat).

I’ve used so many different vegetable combinations, and a few other fruits (pears and plantains), different spice mixes, different levels of heat, and every time it comes out good.  Oh!, I also added sausage.  Crispy bacon also rocks it.

What’s the message of the day?  Fat is Healthy.  Fat doesn’t make you Fat; sugars and grains make you fat, and unhealthy.  Read those last lines again:)   Off to practice yoga;  Make Good Choices!!

Category: Carbs, Fats, Sugar / Tags: , , , , , , ,

PMS, Bone Health, Women’s Issues?

October 27, 2013 / / Comments Off on PMS, Bone Health, Women’s Issues?

debbie (43)Went to a Woman’s Health Seminar yesterday and it was excellent:)    We heard about PMS, Menopause, Weight Gain, Bone Health, and the (lack) of sexual desire so many women feel  that it’s the subject of a zillion jokes and pretty much accepted as “normal”.

Here’s the facts though:  PMS, bad Menopause symptoms, Weight Gain, Bone deterioration, and lack of sexual desire isn’t normal and you don’t need Magical Pills to help you get past it.

Once again, it’s ALL ABOUT DIET AND LIFESTYLE.  Your health, your mood, YOUR HORMONES, they’re the result of the Food You Eat, How You Manage Your Stress, Sleep, and Exercise.  There were no Big Reveals, Special Programs, or, like I said above, Magic Pills.   That’s okay though, because Your Health Is In Your Hands:  you have power and control over your physical and mental health, you just need to start exerting it!

PMS:  Low B vitamins and low magnesium stores will cause cramps and moodiness.  If you eat tons of carbs, you’ll burn through your B’s and Mag stores just processing/metabolizing the flours and the sugars.  You can supplement, but if your diet is Oatmeal/cereal/bagel forPMS breakfast, Starbucks midmorning, bagel/sandwich/pasta for lunch,  carby snack mid-afternoon, and then pasta/bread for dinner, then WINE,   there’s NO CORRECTING for that level of refined, processed carbohydrate ( whole wheat, whole grain, whatever, they’re reduced to Glucose/Sugar in your stomach.)

Menopause?   Some other countries don’t even have a word for that.  We’re special because we have some of the worst Peri – Menopause Symptoms In The World.  If you’ve spent your whole life eating  processed carbs, trans fats, and chemicals; drinking wine several nights a week, snacking enough that Insulin is never turned off; not managing your stress so that Cortisol is made Constantly – which means Raw Ingredients for other hormones go to Cortisol – then there is no supplement/pharmaceutical protocol that’s going to fix you.  Changing your diet will though.  So will adding exercise, going to bed hours before midnight, and managing stress.  Seriously.

Bone Health?  American’s eat more calcium, take more Vitamin D, more Bone Building Supplements, than ANY OTHER COUNTRY.  We have MORE osteoporotic fractures than ANY OTHER COUNTRY.  You can’t supplement your way out of a Carby Diet, Unmanaged Stress, Wine Every Night, Little Sleep, and No Exercise.   Just like Weight is ALL ABOUT THE HORMONES, so is your mood, your health, and your BONES.  If you have Glucose in the blood stream  ALL THE TIME ( see diet described above), bone health will be greatly affected.

Sexual Desire?  Doesn’t happen when you’re exhausted, adrenally depleted, have a slow thyroid, a liver that’s clogged, an unhappy attitude about your body, and loads of cortisol.  Again, there’s no Pill or Magic Formula to fix this.   But Lifestyle Works Every Time – honest.

We’ve got ESPN on this morning ( If my husbands home, it’s on.  It seems to have a goodbone fracture with drugs calming effect on him as he doesn’t even sit and watch it, he just enjoys having it in the background.)  So far there’ve been commercials for Doritos ( super happy people), Beer (super happy people), Prilosec ( Happy guy in front of a PILE of food;  Warning stayed on the screen for the duration:  Do Not Take More Than 14 Days.  That’s because it RUINS DIGESTION, REDUCES STOMACH ACID, and INHIBITS NUTRIENT ABSORPTION – it says that on the package too.) and then Cialis (happy people).

If you live your life according to Media Advertising,  this morning’s message is this:  Junk food is wonderful and makes you happy,  Alcohol is wonderful and makes your life better, and Drugs will help you with all the problems you encounter from your Junk Food and Alcohol consumption.

But that’s not true, at all.  Not for men, not for women, and not for children.

Your lifestyle choices Every Single Day are what make or break your health,.. every single day.  Take control of your life:  eliminate the processed grains and sugars,  read your labels so that you can avoid trans fats and chemicals too.  Don’t assume ANY FOOD that comes in a box or bag is healthy, even if it’s in the Health Section.   Do you drink Wine or Beer several nights a week?  Think of alcohol as Liquid Doughnuts, quit fooling yourself that there’s some health benefits, because there’s not.  Treat alcohol as a VERY OCCASIONAL treat; did you know that a serving size of wine is FOUR OUNCES????   Alcohol ruins stomach mucas/gut function, destroys the liver (which compromises about 60% of our Total Daily Calorie Burn), influences the body to convert everything consumed with the alcohol to be converted to fat, induces insulin to be released, damages neurons in the brain and I could go on and on and on, but let’s leave it at this:  Alcohol’s not healthy.

Sleep is IMPORTANT, and lack of sleep does a number on your hormones that lead to all kinds of illness and disease.  Make getting to bed and falling asleep – way before midnight – a priority.   Exercise is IMPORTANT,  you don’t have to do Cross Fit, or Interval Training, but you should move EVERY DAY.  Yoga / dance classes /  walking / 10 minutes on a bike and 10 minutes of lifting / whatever… it’s all good and your mind and body NEED it.    Stress Management:  Practice this.  Read about it, learn about it, focus on it.  If you live a life where stress in unavoidable, you need to learn mental and physical tricks to keep your Cortisol from constantly flooding your blood stream.   Think that’s impossible because  your life is so stressful?  Other people manage it, you can too.  It takes forethought, practice, and effort, just like planning/shopping/cooking and eating well.  But it’s totally do-able.

Our health is in our hands, from PMS, to Osteoporosis, to GERD, to Heart Health, to Diabetes, Cancer, Auto-Immune and everything else.    Practice the habits and actions that lead to Good Health, Good Hormones, and a Good Immune System.  Eat healthy fats and proteins, tons of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, some whole fat dairy( if your stomach agrees).  Exercise or move every day.  Go to bed at a decent time.  Practice stress management techniques.  Drink plenty of water.  Avoid foods and people that are toxic ( some people need to be “mentally” avoided if you can’t avoid them physically).  Take your power and use it.    You can do this!

 

Category: Carbs, Fats, Food Additives, RWF / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Cholesterol Clarity, and Some Recipes

October 21, 2013 / / Comments Off on Cholesterol Clarity, and Some Recipes

debbie (22)There’s a lot of confusion and mis-information about Cholesterol, so let’s clear a few things up here:  The fat and cholesterol you eat does NOT go straight to your arteries and clog them.  That’s not how the body works AT ALL.  That’s a fear tactic pharmaceutical companies use to get you on their statins.  Cholesterol is a HEALING molecule, a major building block,  and an  antioxidant; it’s so VITAL to our body that God made EVERY SINGLE CELL IN OUR BODY produce it.  When you see a reading of your Total Cholesterol, your LIVER made most of that.  Very, very little of the cholesterol in our BLOOD comes from the food we eat.

Our brain needs TONS of cholesterol to function; our sex hormones are made from cholesterol, Vitamin D is made from cholesterol, bile is made from cholesterol; every time the body has an injury (say, a damaged artery from Insulin or toxic chemicals), the liver sends cholesterol to the site to Heal and Seal the damage. Even mental stress signals the body to produce more cholesterol.

Lipo-proteins are proteins that carry fat and cholesterol inside of them.  Low-Density Lipoproteins carry fats and cholesterol from the liver to other places in the body, and High Density Lipoproteins carry the waste products back to the liver.  Cholesterol does NOT equal lipo-proteins.  Measuring Lipoproteins is a way (some say an inaccurate way) of measuring the amount of cholesterol in your body.  Lipo-proteins are NOT ALL THE SAME.  Seven have  been identified so far; some are big, fluffy, and un-damaging, some are small, dense, and damaging.  Particle density tests can show the differences, but you’ll have to ask.  Otherwise, your doctor will prescribe the cholesterol test created in the 1970s to make a proclamation about your health.  Sound smart?

Cholesterol has been demonized, but that’s undeserved.  OXIDIZED cholesterol, and OXIDIZED lipoproteins, now they’re dangerous.  How do you Oxidize?  Lots of ways: eat sugars and flours that raise the blood sugar levels above normal;  eat Trans Fats; eat, breath, wear, or slather on chemicals that go right to the blood stream;  or flood your blood stream with Cortisol (your stress hormone),  as opposed to “managing” your stress via your mind, exercise, yoga, meditation, etc.

cholesterol clarityBottom line on clogged arteries?  Sugar and flours raise Insulin levels, increased insulin damages arteries, causes inflammation, completely shuts down fat burning in muscle cells, raises LDL and VLDL, and lowers HDL.   Trans fats and chemicals also increase inflammation and cause damage.  Our Food Matters; every bite we take either makes us healthier or sicker.

Cholesterol Clarity is a great, great book with the latest research from 28 Cardiologists and Lipid (fat) Researchers.  It’s an EASY read and honestly MIND BLOWING.   Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis and Grain Brain by Dr. David Peremutter are also Must Reads.  If you care about your health, you must take your health into your Own Hands.   Learn how your body works.  No one cares about you, or your loved ones, as much as you do.

Let me end with a couple of recipes.  The first is some granola I had this weekend at an Energy workshop ( it was all about Quantum Physics and Cool Stuff), and it’s called Paleo Granola.  My friend Ginny made it and it might have been the most popular food there.  OMGosh.   Here’s the link:http://www.paleocupboard.com/granola.html.   The next recipe welemon-coconut-balls-sized made here Friday night when a couple of my college girls were home.  It’s called Keto Lemon Coconut Balls -AHHH! these were delicious! We used Creme Fraiche instead of cream cheese, and real lemon juice, and more coconut than it called for. (I can never stick to a recipe)  Can’t wait to make these again! http://ketogenicwoman.com/keto-lemon-coconut-balls/.

Eating well and being healthy doesn’t mean boiled chicken and steamed broccoli.  That’s called “dieting”, and dieting never works.  Instead, eat healthy fats and proteins, tons of vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, and some whole fat dairy (if your stomach says yes).  Eating well is delicious, and satisfying, and satiating.  Inflammation decreases, healing begins, and your brain will quit screaming at you to keep eating.  Eat Real Whole Foods.

Category: Carbs, Fats, RWF / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Got Impotence or Wrinkles? You’re a Sugar Burner. Plus, Nutritional Therapy Weekend

October 12, 2013 / / Comments Off on Got Impotence or Wrinkles? You’re a Sugar Burner. Plus, Nutritional Therapy Weekend

debbie (23)Does your body burn fat all day, or does it burn sugar/glucose all day?  That TOTALLY depends on your diet.  And I’m not talking about the Old Fashioned Conventional Wisdom Diet: eat low-fat, low-cal, and exercise a ton.  That diet is a Sugar Burning Diet;  there’s too much hard scientific research now showing that if we’re Sugar Burners, we’re setting ourselves up for disease, pain, and weight gain. Oh yeah, and Impotence and Wrinkles.  Who wants those??  Here’s what’s going on:

When you eat Carbohydrates ( pasta, fruit, starchy veggies, ALL GRAINS, beans, and skim milk products), your body breaks them down to GLUCOSE/SUGAR.  When your blood stream ( where all the glucose goes after digestion) becomes OVER full of glucose (easy, because it doesn’t take much), much of the EXCESS carbs are converted to Triglycerides, (a fat), and deposited in your fat cells.  IF ONLY THIS WERE THE EXTENT OF THOSE DARN EXCESS CARBS.  Fatness.  But it’s not….  When excess sugar is consumed, it takes the body a while to clear it from the blood stream back down to “normal” levels (80-100mg).  During that time, the excess sugar is literally wrecking havoc on your brain, your joints, your immune system, your mood, your organs, your nerve cells, and your blood vessels.  The damage accumulates slowly, but it’s happening.  100% guarantee.

What about the Impotence and Wrinkles?  When your blood sugar is chronically high, which is typical if you eat the Standard American Diet ( 5-6 meals of grains, sugars, and “low fat” foods), glucose is allowed to linger in the blood too long.  This give the Sugar/Glucose molecules the opportunity to attach to proteins ( in the blood, or on the body, like the cells lining your blood vessels, brain, joints, or skin, for example).  When this happens, it’s called an Advanced Glycated Endproduct (AGE); here’s where, Bad Stuff happens.   Cells in your Blood Vessels are unable to produce Nitric Oxide, and blood flow is impeded.  There’s your Impotence.

When it happens in the skin, the AGE’s attach to the protein Collagen; stiffness and lack of blood flow, and clumps of debris cause: wrinkles, inflammation, inhibited skin cell growth, liver spots, and general “accelerated aging”.

It always comes down to TOO MUCH SUGAR.  What if you don’t eat sugar?  What if you’re not bowl of pastaoverweight?  If you’re eating any amount of Carbohydrate ( whole grains/ whole wheat/flour products, or beans) they’re digested down to GLUCOSE/SUGAR. Period.  Each time/every time/all the time.  Our body breaks food down to it’s barest molecules. Always. You don’t need to eat “sugar” to have sugar in the blood.  Read above sentence.

Okay, back to Impotence and Wrinkles: they’re bad.  No one wants them.  But we’ve also got the fact that if you have elevated sugar/glucose in your blood, your body WON’T pull fat from your FAT STORES to burn for energy.  Even if you’re working out.  Sugar’s toxic, the body needs to clear it ASAP;  fat’s NOT toxic, so the body converts the excess sugar to fat and stores it.

Am I convincing you yet that you need to give up your bread and pasta?  Are you addicted??  Here’s a little clip from a show called Portlandia;  it’s about Pasta Addiction, and it’s maybe one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.  You might relate.

I’m at a hotel for 3 days during my Nutritional Therapy Weekend, so I want to post my meals and workouts.

Yesterday: No Workout:(  Left the house too early and had to do homework first.

Paul Newman Coffee w Raw Cream
B – Smoothie w/beets/blueberries/whey protein/coconut flakes
L – (packed) chicken breast, apple, coconut butter w cocoa powder (see my last post for recipe)
D – (cooked in room on a plug in frying pan) 2 chicken thighs, fatty broth, chopped cabbage and cauliflower w curry powder (I’d put this in a baggie before I left home)  2 celery sticks with cauliflower hummus

I’m off to the gym now, but I don’t want to leave you thinking: damn, I’m in trouble.  A lot of damage can be reversed, honestly.  Start eating Real Whole Food Fats (they’re healthy), cut way down on your carbs (especially flours/grains and sugars), include healthy proteins and tons of vegetables, cook, pack, and practice paying attention to your food.  Read Practical Paleo or Grain Brain or any of the great “how to eat books and why” that are out there.  It’s never too late!    Let me know how you’re doing:)

Category: Carbs, Fats, Sugar / Tags: , , , , ,

Why I Eat Fat, and an Apology to my Husband

October 10, 2013 / / Comments Off on Why I Eat Fat, and an Apology to my Husband

debbie (44)Our country, and much of the world, is suffering from an epidemic of obesity, all matters of disease, and mental/neurological problems.  I just finished reading an article in the Atlantic that blames the cause of these issues on fat,  “..science is, in fact, fairly straightforward. Fat carries more than twice as many calories as carbohydrates and proteins do per gram, which means just a little fat can turn a serving of food into a calorie bomb.”   OMG.  This is 2013, and that’s not what the science is saying AT ALL.  But this is exactly the kind of thinking that’s gotten us into this weight/health/mental disorder mess.  Just because fat has twice as many calories, doesn’t mean it’s the CAUSE of our current condition. The lowfat/lowcal/”healthy whole grain” paradigm is exactly what’s caused the current condition.  Body fat wasn’t a problem at all before the current recommendations were put into place and became a Public Mantra.

FACTS:  Our brain is 60% fat; our connections, our memories, our ability to quickly recall details, they go AWAY when there’s not enough good fat and cholesterol in the diet.  Science proves this, read Grain Brain, by neurologist David Perlmutter.
Our hormones?  Testosterone, Estrogen, Cortisol, all the steroid hormones ( there’s a bunch), they’re made from FAT and cholesterol, it’s part of the recipe.   Vitamin D?  (of which there’s a serious deficit),  it’s made from Cholesterol.  Science proves this, read Cholesterol Clarity. 28 doctors and lipid scientists fill the pages with the latest research.cholesterol clarity

The fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E, and K?  They can only be absorbed in the small intestine WITH FAT.  Science/proof/read The Great Cholesterol Myth by Drs. Jonny Bowden and Stephen Sinatra.

Want to feel full, and stay full for HOURS?  Eat fat. Want to feel more stable, less moody, less scattered, less forgetful?  Eat fat.  The science proves this, read the Mood Cure by Julia Ross.

Here’s the real science:  when you eat carbs, and put your blood sugar above 100mg/dcl of blood, insulin takes that EXCESS and turns much of it into TRIGLYCERIDES, which need little LDL boats to transport them to our torso area. Current Science:  excess carbs = high insulin= inflammation & triglycerides & high LDLs.  That’s the science.

I’ve eaten more fat in the past two years than I think I have cumulatively my entire life.  For the first time in years and years, my binges and cravings are pretty much gone.  It’s like a thousand pound weight off my shoulder.  I’ve eaten less refined/processed/ healthy whole grain carbs than ever too.  What a WONDERFUL combination.  High fat, medium protein, low carb, with my carb sources being vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.  It’s such a relief to NOT feel preoccupied with thoughts of food, or the next meal.

My weight:  totally stable.  My moods, better than ever.  My fitness level, great.

Confession to my husband:  when you came home last night and said “I smell bacon! Did you save me some?” and I said, “oh hon, there were only 3 pieces, and I ate them.”  There were 6 pieces, and I actually did cook some for you, but I was talking on the phone with Lynda and just ended up eating them all. They were so good.  I’m Sorry!! There will be bacon for you tonight I promise!

We get our bacon from our local IGA, and they’ve been buying a “forested pig” and doing their own curing.  I never knew how much a pig’s diet could change the flavor of the meat, but this is AMAZING.  There’s plenty of places that are doing this now, try www.eatlocal.org to find a place near you.

Let me leave you with a recipe for my favorite treat, chocolate coconut discs; but first, why coconut?  Coconut has enormous anti-viral/anti-bacterial properties, huge.  Seriously, put it on a cut or a cold sore and watch what happens.  It does the same with bacteria and virus that make it past the skin or mouth.  It’s also a Medium Chain Fatty Acid, which means it digests VERY easily, and is mostly used for energy very quickly, as opposed to stored.  It’s being very successfully used in Alzheimer’s and dementia studies right now, for actually REVERSING the conditions; but I like to think about it’s ability to PREVENT the conditions.  I make sure mygirls in richmond kids get coconut flakes, butter, or oil every day. It’s a pretty potent superfood.  Now for my recipe:  I melt a couple tablespoons of coconut butter/oil in a small round, glass bowl.  I add a tablespoon of cocoa powder, and a few drops of liquid stevia.  Stir, and freeze.  I have to let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to pop it out.  This is DELICIOUS, and incredibly filling.

Eating well is delicious.  Real Whole Foods taste amazing.  I’m not talking about steamed veggies and lean proteins.  That’s boring and unsatisfying; no one can stick with that forever!  But delicious meats and vegetables covered with butter, olive oil, and cheese? Or sauteed in coconut oil?  Even kids like that – and it’s good for them, and you too.

Tired of feeling tired, or sick, or unable to lose the weight?  Try a different way of thinking.  Try a different way of eating.  Just try it.  Get in touch with me if you have questions.  I promise, there is a better way. Don’t be scared to try it.

Category: Carbs, Fats, RWF /
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