Archive for Weight Loss

Got Heart Disease? There’s a Good Chance You Do. Luckily, You Have Power Over That.

August 24, 2014 / / Comments Off on Got Heart Disease? There’s a Good Chance You Do. Luckily, You Have Power Over That.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI wrote a Newsletter yesterday on Heart Disease and how to both prevent it and diminish any damage you’ve possibly already caused.  It takes about 20 years for a disease to develop blatant symptoms; “Silent Damage” is very real, and statistically, if we live a Standard American Life, we have it.

If you read my Newsletter already, re-read it with another horrible disease – Cancer – on your mind.  Most of the causes of Heart Disease are also causes of Cancer, and certainly causes of Inflammation.

Further, most of the causes of Heart Disease, Cancer, and Inflammation, will inhibit Weight Loss. 

This Newsletter contains both Reasons for damage to your arteries and heart, and Solutions.

Heart disease is the #1 killer in the U.S. About 1 million people die EACH year from heart attacks, strokes, or a “cardiovascular event”.

According to the American Heart Association, to lower our risk of Cardiovascular Disease we need to lower our cholesterol by eating low fat foods and taking statins if needed, exercise, reduce salt intake, and stop smoking.

Hmmm. Americans ARE taking statins ( 1 out of 4 over 45), we do eat less fat than 100 years ago ( when heart disease was rare), more people exercise than ever, salt intake IS down, and fewer Americans smoke.

The CDC predicts Heart Disease will increase EVERY SINGLE YEAR FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS.
The advice has some problems.

One of the main causes of heart disease is damage to our Coronary Arteries, or CAD for short ( coronary artery disease). What damages our arteries? It’s not what you think.

Delete the image burned into our minds that we eat foods with saturated fats and cholesterol and within minutes those substances have filled our bloodstream, and then literally clog it. That’s biologically impossible.

If you’ve worked with me, you know that fat takes hours to digest. (that’s a good thing.) Fats from food sources are readily and easily used by the body for their individual fatty acids to build and repair. Remember, our body is made out of Water, Fat, and Protein; a teeny bit of mineral, and even less vitamin and carbohydrate (1-2%). Good fatty acids are CRUCIAL for our health. ( http://www.rocksolidnutritionandwellness.com/the-basics/fats/ )

We don’t develop heart disease because Saturated Fat and Cholesterol are horrible villains destroying our arteries. Other things do that. Here’s a list of reasons, and the solutions to go with it.

1) Insulin. Insulin is produced by the pancreas in response to sugar/glucose ( from flour, grains, fruit, beans, etc.) Insulin’s okay in SMALL amounts, critical even, and incredibly damaging in large amounts, like the amounts the average American makes due to ingesting simple carbohydrates several times a day. Think of the hormone Insulin like BARBWIRE COURSING THRU YOUR ARTERIES. It’s caustic and damaging in large amounts.

If you’re overweight, or over 40, and/or have high Triglycerides ( > 100) ask for a 3 hour Glucose Test. If your body can’t handle a bolus of glucose, that means your cells are saying “NO” to the Insulin, aka, Insulin Resistance. This is bad because this means high levels of Insulin and high levels of Glucose are staying in your blood stream WAY TOO LONG. The Insulin literally INFLAMES YOUR ARTERIES, and the Glucose attaches to the proteins in your arteries ( collagen, a protein, is a main component of arteries), and “GLYCATES” them: sticky sugar molecules inappropriately attach to the proteins and fats in your body and blood and DESTROY them. Their shape, their function: ruined. It’s bad.

Even easier: Buy A Glucometer and test your postprandial/after meal blood sugars. It’s simple – ask me how.

Solution: Quit eating Grains and Sugars! Insulin will decrease, Blood Sugar will decrease, Inflammation will decrease, Triglycerides decrease, VLDL ( the “bad” cholesterol) decreases, HDL INcreases, and your WEIGHT and STOMACH girth will decrease. Can’t imagine eliminating sugar and grains? Neither could I. It was easier than I thought; you can do it too. If you’re addicted, email me.

There’s NO medication to lower Insulin, there’s NO medication to lower Triglycerides, there’s NO medication to raise HDL, there’s NO medication to decrease Inflammation ( permanently). Statins don’t do any of that except for possibly, in some people, reduce some inflammation. SOME PEOPLE. What you put in your mouth is the only solution. A high fat, low carbohydrate REAL WHOLE FOOD diet, with great supplements, good sleep, and movement, is the fix.

2) Man made chemicals, found in foods ( preservatives, emulsifiers, flavors..), personal care products, lawn and garden chemicals, cigarettes, are LOADED with toxins that have the same effect on your arteries that Insulin does: they’re caustic and damaging. Did anyone read the Washington Post article on the FDA’s INABILITY to regulate and monitor all the chemicals in our daily lives? Pitiful. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/food-additives-on-the-rise-as-fda-scrutiny-wanes/2014/08/17/828e9bf8-1cb2-11e4-ab7b-696c295ddfd1_story.html) 100 years ago we had NO chemicals in our food supply, 50 years ago we had less than 1000, today, there’s more than 9,000. Many of these HAVEN’T been tested, and many that have, and are deemed possibly CARCINOGENIC, are granted a GRAS status (generally regarded as safe), and incorporated into items we eat, drink, and slather on. Other countries all over the world say NO to hundreds of chemicals that are prolific in American processed foods and products.

Solution: Quit eating processed foods! Shop, chop, pack, and cook. Become picky about food quality. Be suspicious of restaurant food. Read labels of your food and products.

3) Lack of Vitamin D3, the B vitamins ( the heart LOVES B’s), K2 ( essential for placing Calcium in BONES and not arteries), along with other nutrients. How could you be deficient in Nutrients? Your gut. If you burp, bloat, or reflux, you don’t have enough stomach acid. If you don’t have enough stomach acid, breakdown and absorption of nutrients are reduced and good gut bacteria, who have thousands of jobs, are negatively affected. All disease begins in the gut.

Solution: (a) fix your gut with HCL and/or digestive enzymes (b) supplement with D3, K2, and other nutrients. If you’re confused, ask me.

4) Plaque build up and Inflammatory compounds from the damage you keep doing. Plaque is literally a God-Send. It saves our lives over and over. Plaques get sent to the damaged areas in our arteries to prevent them from busting open ( an occlusion). If we didn’t have plaque, heart disease would kill us a whole lot faster than it does. Atherosclerosis is “never-healing-lesions”. They don’t heal because we keep damaging them over and over with Insulin, Glucose, chemicals, etc. The assaults don’t stop, so the plaque can’t stop.

Our liver makes the plaques and sends it to the damaged areas. What’s in plaque? 68% is fibrous tissue, 8% is calcium, 7% inflammatory cells ( they call our fighter cells to them to remedy damage), 1% foam cells, and 16% lipids/fats. MOST OF THE FATS, ~74%, ARE UNSATURATED.

Solutions: quit building plaque! and supplement: Niacin increases HDL which helps reduce plaque, and lowers LDL and triglycerides; Vit K2 reduces calcium in arteries; Vit C is heavily used by arterial walls to rebuild; a good fish oil soothes inflammation (instead of plaque patches soothing inflammation); CoQ10 reduces amyloid plaques ( Statins turn OFF the cells that make CoQ10, they’re the same cells in the liver that make Cholesterol.) and CoQ10 is a preferred fuel for the hearts cells mitochondria ( fuel furnaces).

5) Magnesium Deficiency. Magnesium is critical for over 300 daily functions, magnesium deficiency is EPIDEMIC. It takes 28 molecules of Magnesium to process 1 molecule of sugar ( from dessert, bread, or pasta). Magnesium relaxes the artery walls, reduces blood pressure, and makes it easier for the heart to pump blood and for the blood to flow freely.

Solution: Supplement every single day with Magnesium. It matters that you use GOOD magnesium and not one that passes through quickly without being absorbed into your cells. Ask me if you need a recommendation.

6) Fibrinogins. These are blood clotting cells. I know about these because I’ve had 2 blood clots. Instead of Coumadin ( never!), I’m on Systemic Enzymes. I get my blood analyzed on a regular basis, and I haven’t had Fibrins in my blood for years now thanks to Systemic Enzymes, fish oil, and an Anti-Inflammatory diet ( Real Whole Food, no sugars or grains).

Have you ever heard of Systemic Enzymes? I LOVE them! What an enormous difference they’ve made in my life. I’ve been on them for about 10 years, I’m almost 50, I work out HOURS a week, and my level of pain and inflammation ( from exercise or injuries) has never been lower. I’m savvier at how to manage it via years of trial and error with which enzymes work best for me.

Basically, the inflammatory compounds in our body are mostly Protein based. Bacteria, virus, most pathogens, are protein based. Systemic Enzymes break down proteins in our blood and tissues: scar tissues, blood clots, cysts, plaques. There’s studies all over the world validating Systemic Enzymes in not only the fight against inflammation, but cancer too. ( http://www.inflammation-systemicenzymes.com/).

Again, if you’re interested, ask me. There’s several different fantastic Enzyme Formulas out there, you’ll need to find the one that works best for you.

7) Excessive alcohol. If I had a dime for every time I heard that wine is healthy, I’d be a millionaire. We’re NOT Italian or French. We don’t eat, live, or sleep like them. We’re Americans, and we’re fat ( 70% overweight), sick ( 70% are on at least 1 drug), and tired ( the CDC says it’s EPIDEMIC: http://www.cdc.gov/features/dssleep/). We can’t get away with excessive alcohol. Alcohol’s effects on the heart are many: it directly causes a “weak heart” or Cardiac Myopathy; alcohol ruins liver functions which is critical for the CoQ10 and good cholesterol the heart craves; and alcohol literally ruins stomach lining, which decreases stomach acid which decreases nutrient breakdown and absorption. Stomach lining also produces Intrinsic Factor, which attaches to B12 and escorts it into cells for use. Deficiencies in B12 are associated with high Homocysteine, a HUGE risk factor for Heart Disease and Stroke. ( Acid suppressors also reduce B12)

B12 should be sublingual for good absorption. CoQ10 is an excellent idea for anyone over 40, as even if you’re NOT on a statin ( and you probably shouldn’t be), your body produces less as you age. Your heart needs CoQ10 for “food”, so supplementation is a very good idea.

8) Trans fats in Margarines, and Vegetable Oils that are heated, or exposed to light and air (O2), are damaging to the arteries. Quit using them! Use Saturated Fats for cooking instead: they’re LOADED with nutrients, and their chemical structure is STABLE, which means heat, light, and air don’t oxidize or damage them.

Heart Disease is preventible. Become informed, be proactive, learn, study, read. Don’t take your doctors advice if it’s old-fashioned and clearly not working. Reread the info in the Newsletter, and then read the link at the bottom. There’s so much science out there that’s not getting to the masses. Don’t let that be you!

Here’s an interview with 2 doctors from one of my favorite books, The Great Cholesterol Myth.  

Category: Exercise, Fats, RWF, Sugar, Weight Loss / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do You Have Weight Loss Frenemies?

August 20, 2014 / / Comments Off on Do You Have Weight Loss Frenemies?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe’ve been published in the Huffington Post again! This time our article is on Weight Loss Frenemies, and How To Overcome Them:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-and-debbie-abbott/your-weight-loss-frenemie_b_5686483.html

It’s hard when you’re the only one in your house, your office, or your group, who wants to start eating better.   Our world isn’t conducive to healthy eating, at all.   Kids are rewarded with junk food at school, clubs, and after all their sporting events.  Offices provide donuts, bagels, subs and pizza at meetings, as if that kind of food makes people more productive, and friend groups tend to center around drinking alcohol, and eating the kind of foods that lowered inhibition, from alcohol, induces.  Church lays out donuts and coffee, there’s bowls of candy on the table when you wait for your car to be inspected, and popcorn and candy at the movies seems obligatory.

Not only does the world collude against us, but apparently, we subconsciously seek out others who support our Bad Habits and Self Defeating Desires.

After you read this article, whether you need to lose weight or not, access what your relationships have become, access what your Down Time has become, access what your daily habits have become.  Friends and fun SHOULD have positive, long term consequences. Going to the office shouldn’t constantly throw you off your healthy eating routine.  Regrets, recriminations, resolve to “start again tomorrow”, those thoughts and feelings just lead to stress and bad hormones; if they’re normal for you, it’s time to make changes

Our health, our mood, our thoughts, they’re all the results of our actions every single day.  If we don’t step back and take an account of our time and our habits, before we know it, we’re living mindlessly, making bad choices, and teaching our kids to do the same thing. 

One more thing:  if you have Frenemies who are inhibiting weight loss or healthy eating, forward the article without saying a word.  Honestly, from my work I can tell you that most people want to change, they want to be healthier, they want to feel good, they just feel stuck; we can be the change!

Click on the “Like” and “Share” buttons when you read the article.  The more people we reach, the easier we can make it to take positive actions every single day. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

 

Category: Weight Loss / Tags: , ,

Angel Food Cake! What I’m Eating To Be Ketogenic, Pictures, and Recipes

July 31, 2014 / / 2 comments

angelfood cakeHere’s something that for a long time I considered “Healthy”, but it isn’t:  Angel Food Cake.  I remember my mom making it when I was a kid because my dad was told he had High Cholesterol, and Angel Food Cake had zero cholesterol, which meant healthy (in the old days!).  Then she’d make a fat free pudding with skim milk, and Viola!:  Healthy Dessert!

Here’s the Ingredient list for Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake mix:

Sugar, Wheat Flour Bleached, Egg White, Corn Starch, Leavening (Baking Soda, Citric Acid), Calcium Chloride, Modified Soy Protein, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (A Whipping Aid), Nonfat Milk. Freshness Preserved By BHT And Sodium Ascorbate.

If you cut the cake into 12 pieces, there’s 32 grams of sugar per piece, along side a giant dose of Cancer Causing, Liver Damaging, CHEMICALS.

Here’s the Ingredient list for Jello-O Instant Fat Free Vanilla Pudding:

Modified Food Starch, Maltodextrin, Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate And Disodium Phosphate (For Thickening), Contains Less Than 2% Of Nonfat Milk, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Salt, Calcium Sulfate, Xanthan Gum, Mono- And Diglycerides (Prevent Foaming), Aspartame And Acesulfame Potassium (Sweetener), Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate, Dipotassium Phosphate, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Artificial Color.

Thanks to a big dose of Aspartame, this pudding only has 8 grams of Sugar per serving, mostly, this pudding is a Giant Chemical.  The food dyes alone make it Poison, but the rest of those ingredients are just as bad.

Don’t do it!! Don’t be fooled by pretty desserts that promise no Fat and low Calories.  Our body NEEDS fat, and nutrients!  All those chemicals aren’t just potentially cancer causing, they’re bad for our LIVER ( the BIGGEST source of our Calorie Burn), our Heart ( oxidized cholesterol), our WEIGHT ( all that simple sugar will raise Blood Glucose right out of the normal range), and our Brain ( some of those chemicals are “excito-toxins”, and literally stimulate brain neurons to death!)

At the bottom of this post I’m attaching a recipe for an AMAZING Angel Food Cake from Maria’s Mind Body Health blog;  Shelby says it’s the best thing I’ve ever made, and Shelby’s a tough critic 🙂

I keep getting questions about What I’m Eating to put myself into Ketosis.  It’s been 19 days on the Keto Diet, and I’ve been updating my What I Eat page pretty frequently.

Monday, my Ketones finally hit the “Medium” range, ( took a while!), my weight’s been incredibly stable at 129/130, my energy and sleep are great, and I’m finding this really do-able. That’s probably because I was already Real Whole Food/Paleo for the past few years, and said goodbye to grains and sugars a long time ago.

That said, on August 1st, I’m going back to my Real Whole Foods diet, with my occasional Potatoes, Bananas, and any vegetable I want! I’m glad I dove into the Keto Diet to figure out the nuances, because I think it’s incredibly Therapeutic and Beneficial for a number of health conditions, including:  Insulin Resistance, Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Thyroid disorders,  and Diabetes, to name a few.  Oh, and for those who are having a difficult time losing weight:  It’s fantastic!  

Before I show some food pics, and post the Angel Food cake recipe, here’s a little info on my upcoming weekend.

I have the DCAC Fitness Convention Thursday night through Sunday; I’m packing my breakfasts and lunches, but I’ll eat out each night.  I’ll be sure to update food and workouts though out the weekend.  I LOVE the DCAC!!

Here’s some of my Keto Meals from the past several days:

chicken:cauliflower

 

This was bone-in/skin on Chicken that I cooked on foil ( less pans to wash), and in the skillet: 6 tbsp butter, 1/4 c water, a whole head of cabbage, cauliflower, onion, and chives.  Topped with Cheese:)

 

sausage:onion:cauli

 

 

To the right, that’s crumbled sausage, zucchini, cauliflower, chives, and garlic cooked in butter and you can’t tell, but there’s a whole skin from one of those chickens cut up and cooked in the pan too.  Topped with cheese of course!

And here’s the Angel Food Cake recipe, my notes are in BOLD throughout the recipe:

“HEALTHIFIED” ANGEL FOOD CAKE
12 egg whites
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 pinch salt
1 cup Jay Robb strawberry protein powder (or EGG WHITE powder if Dairy Free) ***I USED VANILLA, NOT STRAWBERRY BC I DON’T HAVE IT**
1 cup Swerve confectioners’ sweetener (or powdered erythritol) (I USED REGULAR SWERVE, NOT CONFECTIONERS – WORKED FINE)
1 tsp strawberry extract (or other extract) ( I USED LEMON EXTRACT BC I DON’T HAVE STRAWBERRY)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift whey protein and confectioners erythritol together and set aside. In a large clean bowl, whip egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy (save the yolks for “healthified” creme brule, “healthified” coconut custard, OR “healthified” ice cream). Add cream of tartar and continue to beat until very stiff (you will be able to put bowl upside down and the whites won’t fall out). Add your favorite extract flavor. Quickly fold in whey mixture. Pour into a greased 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes. Makes 14 servings.

 

*****MY OVEN WAS TOO HOT – LAST NIGHT I BAKED AT 325 FOR 38 MINUTES******

“HEALTHIFIED” CUSTARD

12 large egg yolks
1 cup unsweetened almond milk *****I USED COCONUT MILK FROM CAN – WORKED PERFECT
3/4 cup Swerve (or erythritol and 1/4 tsp stevia glycerite) I USED HALF SWERVE, HALF STEVIA
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil, melted – **I USED HALF OF EACH**

Whisk egg yolks, almond milk, and sweetener in medium metal bowl to blend. Slowly mix in the melted butter so the eggs don’t cook unevenly. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Whisk mixture constantly and vigorously until thickened and instant-read thermometer inserted into mixture registers 140°F for 3 minutes, about 5 minutes total (or coats the back of a spoon). Remove mixture from over water. Serve warm or chilled. (If serving chilled, it can be prepared 1-3 days ahead and refrigerated. Re-whisk before serving.) Makes 4 servings.

Category: Cooking, Fats, Food Additives, Keto Recipe, ketosis, Looks Healthy But Isn't, Sugar, Weight Loss / Tags: , , , ,

Keto Diet Going Strong Update, and Fructose/Leptin/Insulin Facts

July 21, 2014 / / Comments Off on Keto Diet Going Strong Update, and Fructose/Leptin/Insulin Facts

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe Keto Diet has been easy!  I haven’t missed my roasted potatoes, or the banana in my smoothie, or carrots or peas or corn – yet.  I’ve been tempted by my Mom’s Famous Paleo Cookies twice, and resisted because I knew I had cream cheese bites, which I love.  I’m astonished at my energy levels, which weren’t even bad to begin with; my sleep is HEAVY, and my stomach looks tighter.  I haven’t lost anymore weight, but that’s okay.  I’m staying steady at 129.  Body fat testing today at 10am, and then again in a couple months.   Which means I’ve decided to stay on this for a while.   Remember to look at my What I Eat page to check out my meals.

My ketosis sticks are showing a darker color!!  I’ve moved up the Ketone Production Chain a little:)

I’ve had company twice this past week; I cook dinner every night for the family, and catering to the Keto Diet’s really not very different from the Real Whole Food/Paleo Diet.  My family’s already used to a bunch of meat and vegetables, and no bread or pasta on the table, it’s the norm here.  Everyone likes vegetables cooked in butter and topped with cheese, and I still serve watermelon, corn, potatoes, and other fruits and vegetables I don’t eat.

I’ve had 2 questions on both Fruit, and Fructose this week, and I wanted to give a little info and a resource for you to follow if you’re interested.

Leptin is a hormone, made by our Fat Cells, that’s supposed to signal our brains when the stomach is full.  Just like Insulin Resistance, many overweight people have developed “Leptin Resistance”.  This means the fat cells are producing plenty of leptin, but the cells that are supposed to receive it have become “numb/non-responsive” to the message.  Instead, the message to Keep Eating is received, and a vicious cycle is set in place.

Fructose is a simple sugar that’s in Fruit, and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).    HFCS is in most processed and packaged foods, Moms, take note for your kids.  This stuff is NEVER good. The simple sugar Glucose CAN be used by our muscle cells and brain cells for ENERGY;  Fructose can NEVER EVER EVER be used by a cell for energy, EVER.  Ever.   (****Important, we don’t need that much glucose – excess gets converted to fat.)

Fructose always goes right to the liver, where it’s converted to fat.  Often, this fat is actually stored in the liver.  HFCS is one of the main reason Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is so prevalent right now.  If you’re overweight, there’s a good chance you have some degree of this condition, learn what it means here.

Here’s something that’s surprising about Fructose; DIABETICS and PRE-DIABETICS, TAKE NOTE:  No, fructose doesn’t raise blood sugar.  BUT it DOES make the Insulin Receptors on the muscle cells and kidney cells LESS RESPONSIVE TO INSULIN.   This means that Fructose Contributes To Insulin Resistance and Diabetes and various Metabolic Conditions.

All fruit has Fructose in it.  Fructose from fruit is metabolized EXACTLY the same way HFCS is, by the liver.  ***Studies show that excess glucose consumption can actually be converted to fructose ( and fat).  Remember, a carb is a carb is a carb.  Carbs from grains are reduced to glucose.  If you’ve been eating the Standard American Diet, or on a high-carb, low fat diet, you’ve probably had way too much Fructose in your life.  Look down at your stomach – Insulin Resistance, Leptin Resistance, too much Fructose – are the signs there?

This is where a High Fat/Low Carb diet, or a Ketogenic Diet ( they’re slightly different), can come in.  Study after study shows that they can reverse the damage from years of High Blood Sugar, High Insulin, and Leptin Resistance.

Here’s a great article from Dr. Mercola on Leptin and Fructose.  The more you know, the easier it becomes to make good choices for your body.  When choices are easier, there’s less stress.  When there’s less stress, your brain is more compliant with your long term goals.  Sound good?

 

Category: Fats, ketosis, Sugar, Weight Loss / Tags: , , , , , ,

Day 7 On Keto Diet Update, interesting Keto Facts, Cream Cheese Ball Recipe

July 19, 2014 / / Comments Off on Day 7 On Keto Diet Update, interesting Keto Facts, Cream Cheese Ball Recipe

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m LOVING this Keto Diet!  I’ve had a few days this week where I should have been really tired, but I wasn’t, at all!
I had a quick moment of sadness that I couldn’t eat a Paleo Cookie at my mom’s house ( she makes the BEST), but it passed. I wasn’t hungry, just nostalgic for them.  I went home and made the cream cheese balls for dinner, and felt great.

I had stated in my last post that I was going to cut down on my protein portions, but I’ve changed my mind.  I HIT KETOSIS LAST NIGHT!!!   With nice, big protein portions, plenty of vegetables, and cream cheese balls ( dessert!).  My fat grams are in the HUNDREDS and my weight has remained stable after that initial drop.

I’ve NEVER had such a lack of hunger, ever.  Usually, around 4/5 pm, hunger starts to hit me.  This week, ZERO hunger, at all.  I’ve heard of that, but I haven’t experienced it.

Check out my What I Eat page to see my meals.

I’ve had dozens of emails now about the Keto Diet.  If you’re interested, LEARN LEARN LEARN.  Know the science, or any efforts will be wasted.  Honestly.  Have you read my Cancer and Ketosis newsletter, or my Ketosis and The Brain post?  If you don’t arm yourself with all the reasons to try Ketosis – OTHER THAN WEIGHT LOSS –  then it’s just another weight-loss attempt.

(Email me if you want to see the Cancer and Ketosis newsletter; the Brain post is on the blog.)

Weight-loss attempts notoriously FAIL.  Almost 100% of EVERYONE who loses weight on a diet gains it back.  Weight loss is NEVER enough reason to stick to a new food plan.  Ever.  Make it about your health.

Reader question:  Debbie, why would YOU do a keto diet?  You don’t need to lose weight.

Here’s a FEW reasons why:

1)  Ketones have a really negative effect on cancer cells.  From somehow changing the pH around the cells to more alkaline, to eliminating or reducing cancers FAVORITE FOOD ( sugar ), ketones are not good for cancer cells.    Read this by David Servan-Schrell, MD, physician and neuroscience researcher:

“…we all carry cancer cells in us. But .. we all have natural defenses that generally prevent these cells from turning into an aggressive disease. These include our immune system, the part of our biology that controls and reduces inflammation, and the foods that reduce the growth of new blood vessels needed by developing tumors.

In the West, one out of three people will develop cancer. But two-thirds will not. For these people, their natural defenses will have kept cancer at bay. ”

Think of Ketones as another immune defense for the reasons stated above. Here’s more: for our body to produce ketones, there has to be a serious decrease of dietary carbs, and normal blood glucose levels.  I.E: when we’re in Ketosis, our blood sugar levels are NOT high.  High blood sugar IMMEDIATELY suppresses the immune system, for up to 24 hours.  Think of someone who eats sugar and grains excessively every-day-all-day ( the Normal American); what the heck is going on with their immune system?  Nothing good.

2)  Several studies show that Ketones have a positive effect on degenerative brain diseases, from Alzheimer’s to Parkinsons to Dementia to Epilepsy to Bi-Polar to ADHD.   Ancetodal studies show that it eliminates “fuzzy thinking and bad memory”.  I Want That!  Who knows what I’ve done to my brain with YEAAARRSS of chemical diet foods, and excessive sugar and grains.  I used to go though a box of Kashi in 2 days!  What the heck did that constant high blood sugar do to me?

3) Study after study shows that a Ketogenic Diet REDUCES ALL MAKERS OF INFLAMMATION.   Inflammation is the cause of all disease.

If you’re looking for a great book, that’s super sciency, read The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living.  It’s by 2 PhD’s who have 50 years of research and clinical experience between them.  They don’t have any skin in any game.  As a matter of fact, because a Ketogenic Diet is centered around changes in Food and Lifestyle, as opposed to Pharmaceuticals,  money making opportunities are few and far between.

What I’m really looking forward to is Keto Clarity, by Jimmy Moore and Dr. Eric Westman.  This book is coming out soon and I’ve already pre-ordered it.  Check out the “Experts Page”  This book is going to be Fantastic!

IF YOU PRE-ORDER IT, WE CAN DO A BOOK CLUB.  LET ME KNOW!

I’m finishing with a recipe:  Cream Cheese Balls.  Delicious if you love cheesecake!cream cheese balls

1 pkg of cream cheese (  I use this brand because it’s cultured, which means there’s good bacteria in it)
Juice from whole lemon
1 heaping TBSP stevia ( you might need more, depends on your tastes)
2 drops lemon oil ( again, use your own preference for tart )
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c very soft coconut oil
Mash til thoroughly blended, roll into balls, then roll in fine,flaked coconut
Refrigerate or freeze.
Next time we’re doing this w/coco powder, and I also want to try Orange Extract.

 

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Fats, Keto Recipe, ketosis, Reader Question, Weight Loss / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Who Can Start A Ketogenic Diet? Will It Raise Cholesterol? How I’ve Adapted. A Recipe.

July 8, 2014 / / Comments Off on Who Can Start A Ketogenic Diet? Will It Raise Cholesterol? How I’ve Adapted. A Recipe.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’ve had two good questions this week.  One, from a new client, “Can I start the Ketogenic Diet ASAP, because I need to lose a lot of weight.”, and Two, from a reader, ” I have high cholesterol, so this diet can’t be good for me, right?”

Let me answer both of these questions.

“Can I start the Ketogenic Diet ASAP, because I need to lose a lot of weight.”  No, I don’t want anyone I’m working with to jump into a Ketogenic Diet without (1) knowing exactly what it means, and (2) getting a really good handle on organizing/planning/shopping/cooking/and packing; and (3) eliminating snacking.

It’s hard enough to just eat well without giving in to cravings and triggers and habits.  Eating a Ketogenic Diet is really particular, and it requires Practice at Discipline.  It also needs to be implemented after we’ve wrapped our heads around the health benefits and the how-to’s, because honestly, weight loss is never enough reason to stick to any food or diet plan forever.  That’s why almost 100% of everyone who loses weight gains it back.  Any motivation to stick to a diet plan just to lose weight is a very temporary feeling.

I want my clients to experience success and actual brain-change, for example:

The longer I immerse myself in the science of what happens to my body in response to certain foods, the easier it is to eat only foods that are good for me.  I look at cheetos, frozen waffles, and processed foods as Cancer Fertilizer, and they scare me.  Gluten scares me!

I don’t snack anymore, neither does Mark.  We know that we need those hours between meals for the right HORMONES to happen so that our bodies can actually burn fat instead of glucose.  That fact is a fore-thought, not an after thought; because of that, the snack voice rarely calls to us anymore.

I’ve become so good at remembering how I feel after a binge, that I NEVER binge anymore.  It’s NORMAL for me now to do what it takes to feel good, clear headed, positive, energetic, and lean.   It took a while for me to reach this point, but I’m there.  You can be too!

My goal for my clients:  (1) to become great planners and organizers;  to take control of their life/eating/habits without stress  (2) for “long-term-consequence-thinking” to become their norm.  

Seat-of-pants-spontaneous-eating…..doesn’t work for anyone.  Unfortunately, spontaneous eating is more normal than not.

Bad habits, old habits, compulsions,… they’re STRONG.  You’ll need New Brain Patterns to overcome them.  Remember the Brain Rule:  our brain wants to do what’s COMFORTABLE, not what’s best for us.  An “uncomfortable” brain can shout very loudly, right?  “Eat it! Drink it! It’ll feel so good, and you can always Diet tomorrow/Monday/the 1st.”

I set my clients up for Success by taking it one step at a time.  We focus on saturating the mind with information that rewires the bad habits.  It’s a one step at a time approach, because really, that’s all the brain will allow. Brains don’t like change.  Almost 100% of everyone who “diets” gains the weight back.  Half of all those people gain back more than they lost.  Just changing your food for a week or a month or even a few months isn’t a long term health and weight loss solution.

That said, weaning off the trigger foods ( they’re always grains and carbs), identifying trigger people/places/things, making a written plan, and practicing cooking and packing, are crucial.  So is learning about habit change/habit breaking/ building new habits.

Next Question:  Will a Ketogenic Diet Raise Cholesterol?

NO!  Bad cholesterol rises in response to excess carbs, particularly sugars and grains.  When the blood sugar gets above “normal”, which is 100mg/dl, much of the excess is remade into fat ( triglycerides).  The liver has to make Small, Dense, LDL ( the BAD cholesterol) to transport that new fat to it’s new home:  the fat cells in your abdominal area.  

Not all cholesterol is bad, much of it is good! Cholesterol is such a NECESSARY element in our body that God made Every Single One Of Our Cells capable of manufacturing it.  The liver produces boatloads;  and it produces even more if we’re sick, injured, or stressed, because cholesterol is a necessary component of the hormones and immune system that deals with those issues.

Want some references to ease your mind?  Read these posts:

One,  Two, Three.  If you’re accepting information from your doctor that’s based on 1980 science, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

I’m wrapping up with a Recipe:  Chicken, Butter, and Vegetablesdinner

In a pan, I melted 6 tablespoons of Kerrygold butter and a 1/4 of water.  I added meat from 2 big chicken breasts, 2 endives slices in half, a whole onion, a bunch of cauliflower, 2 yellow zucchini, a bunch of chives, and Salt and Pepper.  Before I served it ( forgot to photo this), I added a bunch of feta cheese, and a tablespoon of butter to each bowl.  Delicious!

 

 

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Fats, Hormones, ketosis, Mind/Body, No Recipe Paleo Meals, Paleo Recipe, Psychology of Eating, Reader Question, RWF, Weight Loss / Tags: , ,

Can High Fat-Low Carb Curb Your Appetite and Cravings? Yes! Client Email, and A Recipe.

July 2, 2014 / / Comments Off on Can High Fat-Low Carb Curb Your Appetite and Cravings? Yes! Client Email, and A Recipe.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI had an email yesterday from a lady who said she believed in the benefits of a high fat-low carb diet, but that she really struggles with food cravings;  she hasn’t stuck to her diet plan  for more than a few days.  That’s a familiar problem, and I’ve got an answer:  Up Your Fat.  Way up.  That allows you, mentally and physically, to cut back on the carbs.  Here’s why.

Cravings, hunger, and food addictions are a HUGE issue; if you’re trying to conquer them with your “same old plan”, nothing will change.  The cravings and addictions will keep winning.  You know the scenario:  the morning starts out with the best of intentions only to be derailed by hunger, or a trigger, a few hours later. Anger and disappointment sets in.  It’s a bad way to live, and it can be incredibly consuming.

I have a great email from a client who went from “Diet Obsessed, to Happy and Calm”, from EATING MORE FAT . ( And she looks AMAZING – seriously.)

“I know I have some work to do still but it really is amazing. I can only remember ever worrying about the fat and calories in food and living my life based around that. Just in the last couple years when things were at their worst I was literally writing down every calorie and making sure to keep it under a certain amount and eating no fat at all. I was weighing myself when I got to the gym and before I left (everyday). I literally couldn’t think of anything else besides what I was eating, when I was working out, and what the latest scale number said. It was beyond exhausting….and at the same time trying to be a mom to two little kids one who was pretty sick…….

But in learning all I am about the truly nourishing qualities in food and how it can heal us, I don’t see how I could fall back into such an intense fear of food. I have a real sense of control now and know I am doing something truly healthy for myself.”

See that word “control”,.. that’s what we’re all seeking, right?  The ability to not feel so weak in the face of our triggers or even actual hunger? High Fat-Low Carb is the answer, honest.  Our bodies are made out of water, fat, and protein.  Carbs don’t make any part of us, they’re just a fuel source.  That’s all.  Even if you workout, you don’t need that many carbs to fuel your life.

Remember:  All Excess Carbs Are Converted To Body Fat.  All Of Them.

If we live a life of constant high blood sugar ( oatmeal, cereal, or bread for breakfast, sandwich and chips for lunch, pasta or pizza for dinner, carby snacks in between),  *****WE DON’T BURN MUCH FAT**** we just burn all that excess sugar. If our blood sugar does dip down below normal, chances are our body actually uses MUSCLE TISSUE (converted to glucose) BEFORE FAT TISSUE for energy.  

Famous Line:  Our Body isn’t a Math Equation; It’s a Chemistry Set. 

Fat Satiates the Appetite; a high fat/low carb diet keeps Insulin low; high fat/low carb induces the body to use Fatty Acids for Fuel; fatty acids are also used to build our hormones, organs, cells, glands, bones, and tissues; fatty acids have anti-viral/anti-bacterial properties; our brain is 60% fat.

Sugar and certain proteins in grains actually STIMULATE areas of our brain that control pleasure and desire, or should I say, cravings and addictions.  We’ve all read the news stories about the rats who consistently picked sugar over cocaine, right?  Last night I saw a commercial that depicted a woman starring longingly at a handsome man, but when they went inside her head, all she wanted was the giant burrito he was eating.  These processed carbs are really, truly addictive; and most of the time, trying to “limit” them, has ZERO effect on dampening the urges for them.

Besides stimulating our appetites, a High Carb – Low Fat diet does NOTHING for our satiety. Carbs are digested so quickly, EVEN OATMEAL, that hunger’s a fact of life.  Trust Me:  Not Feeling Hungry Is WONDERFUL, FREEING, AMAZING.  That’s how you can feel when you ditch the grain and sugar, and add the fat.

Remember that email from Mandy, who said she feels like she’s been Freed From Diet Prison?   You could feel that way too!

Still dubious that eating plenty of fat can squash cravings? Here’s a quote from Dr. Tom Cowan’s book, The Fourfold Path to Healing,  “Our brain is specifically designed to sense the fat content of our food and to tell us to stop eating when the proper amount of fat has been ingested. When the need for fats and the nutrients they contain is satisfied, we stop eating. The body’s requirement for fats is so great, and the appetite that spurs the body to obtain those fats is so strong, that binge eating is likely to occur if fats are omitted from regular meals.”

Re-read that last sentence.  Fats are NUTRIENT bombs. Our brain and body want them.  Stop equating fat from foods with fat on your body.  They’re different!  Human’s make fat from excess carbohydrate.

Tips to get started: (1) clean out your kitchen; no one in your whole family needs crackers, cookies, or pasta. (2) make a grocery list and include coconut oil, coconut butter, olive oil, kerry gold butter, whole dairy ( if it works for you), nuts, seeds, plenty of vegetables, and good meats and eggs.  You can do this!

Here’s a recipe for Pesto – one of my all time favorite foods; perfect for any High Fat, Low Carb diet.

pesto In your blender, mix 1/4 c walnuts, or pecans, or pumpkin seeds 1/2 c shredded parmesan 2 cups basil 2 crushed garlic cloves juice of 1 lemon S&P ****1/2 c MCT oil ( I use Skinny Fat, by Carlton Nutrition), and 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

We ate this Sunday on fish and vegetables, Monday on meat loaf, and Tuesday on chicken.  So Good!

Category: Fats, Hormones, Paleo Recipe, Psychology of Eating, Reader Question, RWF, Sugar, Uncategorized, Weight Loss / Tags: , , , , ,

Ketogenic Diets and Weight Loss; Keto Recipe

June 28, 2014 / / Comments Off on Ketogenic Diets and Weight Loss; Keto Recipe

I’ve had a few email questions this week about a comment I made in this post about Ketogenic Diets, it was about weight loss.  Here’s the quote that raised the questions: “If you’ve got a lot of Insulin Resistance, you’ll need to go Ketogenic,” .   

The questions can be summarized like this:  What’s a ketogenic diet?  Will it help me lose weight?

Here goes.   When we burn glucose ( sugar/carbs/pasta/bread/vegetables/fruit/etc), for fuel, that means that glucose goes into the cells “furnace” or mitochondria, and gets “burned” for energy. ( Geeks, I know I just skipped a bunch of steps..)  If you’ve been reading my blog or you’re into the whole sciencey world of metabolism, you know there’s several “negatives” about Sugar Burning.  Here’s a few ( no one has time for all of them.)

1) We need very little glucose to live/perform/grow, very little.  Our Normal blood sugar ( NOT JUST FASTING, BUT NORMAL), should be between 80 and 100.  ( Read this to know what I mean.)  The average daily intake of sugar in 2010 was 63 teaspoons a day; this doesn’t include the grains that become sugar in the body via digestion.  Obviously, we eat WAY more sugar/glucose than the body needs.

2) High blood sugar is Incredibly Damaging to our body.   Here’s a short list of what can happen:  brain tissue shrinks, blood becomes thick and sticky, the vasculature of our eyes, kidneys, feet, and hands narrows, our immune system is suppressed, proteins and fats become Glycated/Fried/Damaged, AND ALL FAT BURNING STOPS UNTIL LEVELS ARE NORMAL.

3) High Blood Sugar is met with corresponding High Insulin.  Insulin also wrecks havoc when there’s too much of it:  systemic inflammation, inhibition of cellular uptake of vitamins, minerals, and proteins; arterial wall damage, blood pressure increases, and HDL decreases.

You might have heard that our brain needs glucose to function.  And if you read Runner’s World, or listen to advice from 1980, you’ve heard that athlete’s need to carb load before a big workout.  Worse, you might think that AFTER a good workout, you actually DESERVE a carb load, or in the very least, you’ve created such a calorie deficit that you can take your carb load and crush it with your starving muscle cells.

If. Only.   It’s thinking like this that get’s a lot of us in trouble!

Here’s where a need for a ketogenic diet comes in.

Years of high blood sugar cause our muscle and liver cells to become damaged and sensitive ( in a bad, “get away from me” fashion) to Insulin.  (fyi,  Insulin attaches to Glucose/Sugar and tries to get it out of your blood and into your cells.)  This is called Insulin Resistance.   It’s the cells response to what’s basically an assault; they’re protecting themselves.  Insulin Resistance is a blanket term for a whole host of health issues that result when (1) our cells can’t absorb their needed nutrients, and (2) we have sustained, high, circulating levels of glucose and insulin.

Interestingly, the cells on the backs of our eyes, our kidney cells, and the cells of our extremities CAN’T say no.  That’s why in diabetics, they become so damaged.

Anyway, a Ketogenic Diet is a very high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet.  This has several positive effects, here’s a few:  (a) because blood sugar levels are low, there won’t be any further damage to cells from Glycation ( high blood sugar kind of “fries” a cell, like a grilled cheese sandwich – literally.) (b) because insulin is in low amounts, the Fat Burning Hormone GLUCAGON can be released from the pancreas ( Insulin and Glucagon are pretty much an “either/or” situation) and fat can be used for energy instead of just glucose  (c)  cells that have been assaulted by both the glucose and the insulin will start to reverse their
“get away from me” stance, and (1) nutrients will be allowed into the cells once again, and (2) blood levels of glucose and insulin will normalize.

What about your brain, will it starve if there’s not enough glucose?  Is ketosis dangerous? Or the whole exercise conundrum – who wants to bonk while we’re out on a run or lifting weights?

No, no, and won’t happen.  A ketogenic diet produces a substance called Ketones, and our cells LOOOVEEE ketones.  As a matter of fact, the heart and the brain work 25% MORE efficiently on ketones than on glucose, and ketones have NO bad side effects.  Our muscle cells THRIVE on ketones, and ketones have an ANTI-Inflammatory effect.  (They also have “anti-seizure” properties, which is why it’s a great diet for epileptics.) The anti-inflammatory effects helps counter the normal inflammation that occurs with exercise.

Go back to this sentence: “because insulin is in low amounts, the Fat Burning Hormone GLUCAGON can be released from the pancreas ( Insulin and Glucagon are pretty much an “either/or” situation) and fat can be used for energy instead of just glucose”.  

If we have Insulin Resistance, that means that the insulin levels in our blood is probably always high, despite what our blood sugar readings are.  That’s why blood sugar ISN’T always a good indication of your Insulin levels.  If you’re overweight and have belly fat and yet you don’t eat much and you exercise, that’s a good indication that you have Insulin Resistance.  Your body literally RESISTS burning body fat.  It’s actually more normal than not in todays world to have Insulin Resistance by middle age; for many today, even younger than middle age.   If you’re Insulin Resistant, you burn mostly Sugar.  A Ketogenic Diet can make you a Fat Burner.  ( Yep, you have to eat fat to burn fat. )

If this is the case, you need to reverse the Insulin Resistance by stopping the assault on your cells.  This happens when you lower your carbs, which causes less Insulin to be made and released by the pancreas.  You also need to WAY UP YOUR FAT intake, to heal cells ( all cell membranes are made of cholesterol and fatty acids), regulate your hormones, and stop the addictive voices in your brain.

Good fats, from butter, coconut oil, healthy meats, nuts/seeds, whole fat dairy, and good oils like MCT oil or olive oil, are incredibly nourishing, honestly, they’re loaded with nutrients that our body uses to heal, build, and repair.  Fats don’t make us fat; Sugar and Grains make us fat.  Wait, fats along with a ton of sugar and grains DO make us fat.  You can’t mix them, that’s a recipe for disaster.  Same with “bad” fats, like hydrogenated oils and too much inflammatory Omega 6s – disaster.

Wow, there’s more, but that’s enough info for today.  Let me leave you with a recipe that’s “ketogenic”, and DELICIOUS:brussels bacon  Brussels, Bacon, and Onions, cooked in plenty of Butter, sprinkled with Parm.

1) I melted 6 tablespoons of Kerrygold in the baking dish for 5 minutes, til liquid, and then added 1/4c of water

2) I chopped a giant bagful of brussels, then completely stirred/tossed them in the butter/water

3) I chopped 3 smallish red onions and mixed them in there too

4) added lots of Salt and Pepper, roasted at 400 for 30 minutes

5) on stove top, I cooked 6 slices of bacon that I cut with scissors first, til almost crisp

6) added them to the brussels, and continued baking for 5 more minutes, took out, topped with fresh grated parmesan.     Delicious!

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Fats, Hormones, ketosis, No Recipe Paleo Meals, Paleo Recipe, RWF, Sugar, Weight Loss / Tags: , , , , ,

Weight Loss Is About Your Metabolism; Metabolism Is About Your Hormones.

June 21, 2014 / / 2 comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAInteresting week I’m having; it’s been heavy on female clients who are exercising hard and not losing weight, or barely eating and not losing weight, or both, and not losing weight.  This is always surprising to the people this happens too, because exercise and diet are supposed to create the calorie deficit that causes calories to be burned and weight loss to happen.  Exercise is supposed to make us calorie burning machines, right?  Barely eating should melt off our fat, right?  This works when we’re young, so what happens after 30, or 40, that brings the old calories in – calories out efforts to a screeching halt?

That’s easy.  Years of yo-yo diets, full of refined carbs and chemicals ( hello diet coke, lean cuisines, bagels, cereal, beer, and crackers), eventually cause metabolic damage, usually in the form of Insulin Resistance, and organs that become damaged/worn out ( the liver, the pancreas, etc); and our hormonal system shifts from one that’s full of Growth Hormone, sex hormones, and fat burning hormones like Glucagon, to a hormonal system full of Insulin and Cortisol.

Remember this famous line:  our body isn’t a math equation, it’s a chemistry set.  We need to manipulate our chemistry if we want to lose weight.

Quickly, because I have a big yoga workshop in a few hours, I’m going to cover the diet and exercise we need to do if we want the hormones that help us lose weight.

1) We need to lift, or resistance train; and we need to do cardio intervals that make us breathless.  This isn’t “new” information, at all.  Science has shown for years that to burn body fat during and after exercise, our muscle cells needed to be stressed out and broken down.  Then, during our rest periods, those cells rebuild and become a little bit bigger.  Bigger muscle cells use more calories – 24/7 – than small muscle cells.

Go for a “burn”,  which means a build up of lactic acid; recent science shows that lactic acid induces release of both HGH (human growth hormone) and Testosterone ( ladies – we DO want testosterone! ).  This primarily happens when we sleep.  Add “sleep” to your weight loss routine. 

Let me repeat:  To induce a hormonal atmosphere that increases the calories you burn in a day, you need to tear down your muscles cells during your workout, then rest so they can 1. rebuild bigger, and 2. stimulate the necessary hormones that create muscle growth as opposed to FAT DEPOSITION.

Aerobic exercise is Great-Awesome-Wonderful. There’s a million benefits to it.  It. Will. Not. Take. Off. Weight.  Too much cardio actually eats your muscle cells, which LOWERS your 24-7 calorie burn.  Cardio DOESN’T build muscle tissue, and cardio can make you STARVING.  Be careful with it.

2) Your Diet:  Once we get past a certain age, and have had years or decades of either crappy processed carbs, or “healthy whole grain” carbs, we’ve caused damage to our cells called Insulin Resistance.  You know you have this if you barely eat and either can’t lose weight or you’ve gained weight. This means you’re not burning the body fat you see in your belly, thighs, or butt.  That’s because the muscle cells, and the liver cells are saying “No” to the insulin, which is trying to reduce the glucose (sugar) in your blood stream. This causes the pancreas to keep pumping out more insulin.  When insulin is in the blood stream, FAT IS NEVER USED FOR ENERGY, only glucose is used for energy.   Insulin also causes major amounts of damage to our arteries.

Remember, there’s only a few things we do with all that extra glucose: (a) stuff it in some muscle cells – which doesn’t work if they’re insulin resistant  (b) stuff in a storage site in our liver – which doesn’t work if those cells are insulin resistant, or (c) turn the excess glucose into TRIGLYCERIDES, which is fat, and stuff it in the fat cells, which are NEVER insulin resistant.

When you’re Insulin Resistant, YOU CAN NOT BURN THE FAT YOU HAVE STORED IN YOUR BODY.   You only burn glucose/sugar.  Think that if you barely eat, the body would HAVE to burn fat?  Not if you’re Insulin Resistant!  In that case, your body will happily, and easily, turn muscle tissue into glucose, and use that.  Again, if insulin is in the blood stream, fat won’t be used for energy.  This, and reduced thyroid function, is what happens from years of calorie reduction.  Not a successful plan for weight loss.

What’s the answer to manipulating your diet to lose weight?  Cut the carbs, WAY UP THE FATS, moderate protein, a TON of vegetables, a little bit of fruit, a little bit of nuts and seeds, and a little bit of whole fat dairy if you tolerate that.

If you’ve got a lot of Insulin Resistance, you’ll need to go Ketogenic, and probably add a liver cleanse.  Don’t be scared!  The ketogenic diet is incredibly healthly,  and honestly not hard to live with.

Why a liver cleanse too?  Our liver SHOULD be our biggest calorie burning organ; it should burn more calories than our muscles!  It’s supposed to do hundreds of jobs a day.  If it’s clogged with toxins or damaged by insulin resistance, that calorie burning avenue is hampered, badly.  It’s also a road to really poor health when our liver can’t do the jobs it’s supposed to do.

So there you have it.  If you want to lose weight, but can’t, you need to lift, you need to cut the carbs, you need to focus on Real Whole Foods, and you might need a liver cleanse.  If you’re really Insulin Resistant, you’ll need to do a Ketogenic Diet.  It’s mid-June.  Think where you could be at Christmas time if you start now.  Honestly.  Think about that.  Email me if you want help with the  Ketogenic Diet, it’s a slam dunk for reversing Insulin Resistance, losing weight, and getting healthy.  

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Category: Carbs, Fats, Hormones, ketosis, RWF, Weight Loss / Tags: , , ,

Still Afraid of Fat? Time to Rethink that.

June 18, 2014 / / 2 comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHas anyone read The Big Fat Surprise, by Nina Teicholz? It’s getting a lot of press because it’s a great book!  She goes through step by step details of how meat, full fat dairy, eggs, cholesterol, and saturated fats came to be demonized in America.  What happened?  Let’s just say it’s Big Phuvernment in full swing.

You all, we’ve been duped.  Yep.  There’s ZERO scientific research that CONCLUSIVELY links eating fat and cholesterol with heart disease, yet that connection is accepted as gospel.  Study after study demonstrates no correlation between our level of blood cholesterol and any degree of atherosclerosis.  Study after study shows no link between lowering our cholesterol through diet or drugs, and avoiding heart disease. We wouldn’t know this from talking to our doctor or watching TV commercials.  It’s time to rethink how we make decisions about our own health.

Here’s a few lines on the results of a UCLA School of Medicine study which looked at 136,900 patients in 2009:

A nationwide study conducted by UCLA School of Medicine found that 75 percent of patients hospitalized for a heart attack had LDL cholesterol within the so called safe range – below 130 mg/dl. (21 percent of the patients were taking a statin cholesterol-lowering drug.) Even more astounding, 50 percent of patients had LDL less than 100 mg/dL – considered optimal levels! The mean LDL cholesterol among the hospitalized patients was 104.9 mg/dL.

Read that again! Seriously!

Study after study has shown that lowering cholesterol doesn’t make us live longer or better or have less heart disease. Actually, there are several studies showing that really low cholesterol is linked with more infections ( cholesterol is vital to our immune system), a lack of sex hormones ( all steroid hormones are derived from cholesterol), and associations with aggressive behavior and suicides.  Low cholesterol can be bad for our health – ever heard your doctor say that?

If you’re looking for an interesting non-fiction read, this is it.  It’s time that everyone discovers that  (1) Fat’s not bad for us, and (2), fat is actually GOOD for us. Here’s a few of the many benefits of fats;  read and consider how DECADES of low-fat advice has impacted our health:

Every singe cell in our entire body has a membrane that’s partially composed of saturated fats and cholesterol.  They provide a support structure that allows nutrients in, trash out, and information to be passed cell to cell properly.  That’s important.

Our brain matter is about 60% fat and cholesterol.  ( If you haven’t read Grain Brain yet, you should! )  Fat has many functions up there;  one of them is making memories. Our memories come from our synapses, and synapse formation is almost entirely dependent on cholesterol.  Our brain’s own cells produce a lot of the cholesterol needed for this.  Statin drugs, which shut down our own natural cholesterol production, are famous for interfering with memory.

What about LDL, surely that’s definitely bad, right? It depends.  There’s several types of LDL; one type bind directly to dangerous bacterial toxins and inactivates them, preventing them from doing any damage in the body. We need that particular LDL!   A diet rich in cholesterol has been demonstrated to improve recovery from acute or chronic infections, so the next time you get sick, focus on healthy fatty foods:  eggs, liver, butter, and fatty broth.

There is an LDL that’s small, dense, and prone to damaging arteries, it’s called VLDL, and our body makes that in response to high amounts of carbohydrates in the diet.  (Triglycerides, a fat that’s highly correlated with heart disease, also rises in response to high amounts of carbs.)

Maybe you believe that eating fat doesn’t cause heart attacks, but can you believe that eating fat doesn’t necessarily make you fat?  Notice I say “necessarily”.  A diet full of processed foods, crappy carbs, hydrogenated fats, old polyunsaturated fats left in a deep fryer for days, and a pile of chemicals that create smells, flavors, textures, and colors – just like real food – will make anyone fat as a tick. And sick too. ( This includes our children. )

A diet full of healthy animal fats, coconut oil, olive oil, butter, and cream, along with copious amounts of vegetables, good proteins, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some full fat dairy ( if you can tolerate that), will absolutely NOT make you fat.  The opposite will happen, I promise! How?  You’d be feeding your body what it needs to make new cells, repair cells, and function correctly.  When your body has what it needs to build and repair, it runs smoothly. Your weight normalizes, you have energy, your immune system is strong, and you think better!

Bonus?  Fat satiates.  The food cravings that drive constant eating or binges?  Gone on a high fat diet. That’s because a high carb, high crap diet leaves your brain searching for nutrients.  You won’t be able to ignore the messages demanding that you eat now if you’re not feeding your body the nutrients it needs to be normal and healthy.

Confused, dubious, but hopeful that fat could actually be good for you?  If you’re in the mood for a Big Read, buy The Big Fat Secret.  If you need something quicker, easier to read, and much more direct about fat and cholesterol’s relationship to heart disease, and the dangerous side effects of statin drugs, buy Cholesterol Clarity.   I recommend this to clients, family and friends all the time, it’s excellent.

Want to implement a high fat diet, but you’re not sure how?  Get in touch with me. If you’ve been on a low fat/high carb bandwagon, you’re going to need help making the switch, mentally and physically ( in your kitchen ).  If you’ve been struggling with your weight and your health, this is the answer you’ve been looking for, honest.  Real Whole Food, with plenty fats.  Honestly, try it for a month.  See the difference it can make in your mood, your thinking, and your life – it’s profound.

The Big Take Away:  We all need to be our own best health care provider.  To truly be healthy, fit, and full of energy, it’s up to us to read, to learn, and to question the main stream establishment.  Big Phuvernment stands for the union of Big Government, Big Business, and Big Pharma.  Medicine today is very drug and money oriented.  As a matter of fact, the US spends more on health care than any country in the world, with horrible results.  It’s time for us to stop following blindly, and start taking control of our own health.

Category: Carbs, Cooking, Fats, Hormones, Mind/Body, RWF, Weight Loss / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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