Diet – The Short Version….

13 Saturday May 2017

Posted by ByCandace in Books, Food, Lifestyle

Tags

#change, #eatallthethings, #eatrealwholefood, #norestrictions, #paleo, #priorities, #uncomplicated

THEN

Back in the 1990’s and 2000’s I was all about a Low-Fat diet. I thought I had to eat low-fat to be fit and health. Keeping in mind I was in my early 20’s I was fit, but I was not healthy. At all. Then I also became un-fit as well. I yo-yoed back and forth for years.

Side note: Even when I was eating low-fat, I was never really able to eat as low-fat as I thought I “should” be eating. I still don’t know what people eat to maintain super low fat intake.

Enter “The Paleo Solution Diet” by Robb Wolf. This is a great book – I highly recommend it!

I again was not healthy. At all. So, I dove into Paleo face first. Over a few years I became very health and fit again. It was fantastic! I felt great – I preformed great – I looked great!

Somehow I ended up messing around with a super low carbohydrate diet. Between the low carbohydrate diet and poor lifestyle factors, and after some time…I became unhealthy and un-fit yet again.

I’ve been working to flight my way back ever since. This time my body broke down to levels I did not know existed and wish I didn’t know.

NOW

Through all of my diet and health struggles…..this is what I’ve learned.

Paleo is not dogmatic (you’re the only person that can impose rules on yourself)
Low-fat diets will eventually break you
Low-carb diets will eventually break you
Excessive exercise will eventually break you
It takes longer to heal the broken than it takes to break

I will no longer cut out a whole macro groups (protein, fat, carb) from my diet ever again. It isn’t necessary and in the long run it will break you.

Eating protein, fat, and carbs is required.

I know….I know…. everyone is either still in the low-fat camp or all about the ketogenic diet – it is everywhere and I’m sure most people are super confused about it all.

Truth is everyone’s dietary requirements are different from everyone else’s and each person’s dietary requirements change throughout their lifetime.

Recommended Books

Soooo…..I’m not a man…I realistically cannot speak to that….but I can tell you….as a women….while we can adjust our macros (protein, fat, carb) of how much of each we take-in we need to be eating all three. Maybe not at every meal and maybe not every day, but you need all three in your face…in your body if you want to maintain your life, health, well-being, fitness, hormones, sleep….etc.

I find that I personally do not do well with restriction. Restriction in anyway will send me into a tailspin. So, now….I do not tell myself that I cannot have something. I can have anything I want any time I want. It is my responsibility and my choice to eat something or not to eat something that I choose…knowing that it either helps me or hurts me and it either gets me closer to my goals or further away from my goals. I own it and I suffer or reap the consequence of my choice one way or the other (I don’t feel bad about it either way).

UNCOMPLICATED

This whole thing is less complicated than what folks make it out to be.

Eat whole real foods.

If you can answer yes to these three questions, then it is real whole food.

Did your food grow out of the ground, fall from a tree, or have a mother?
Will it spoil?

There are times when we will eat foods out of a box or a bag; this day in age it is inevitable.

Can you pronounce all the ingredient’s names? (if not, find a better quality product with simple/less/pronounceable ingredients)

Go back to basics.

Trust me I get it….while this is a simple approach….it isn’t necessarily easy. BUT there are lots of tools out there to help (including me). I have found that we can and will do anything that we determine is important to us.

Book Review: One-Pot Paleo Cookbook by: Jenny Castaneda

01 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by ByCandace in Book Review

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

#bookreview, #cookbook, #onepot, #paleo

I have to admit that I’m a bit of a recipe and cookbook junkie. I read cookbooks with the same enthusiasm that other people read novels. I particularly enjoy cookbooks that have lots of pictures of the food in them.

Honestly there aren’t very many of them that I use with any regularity, but I think this one is going to be an exception. I work full-time and struggle with making sure that we have healthy meals throughout the week that are easy and fast.

Enter….the One-Pot-Paleo cookbook!

The first thing that I love about the book is on page 10. “the recipes in this book, you’ll find some that are quick and easy and come together in less than an hour, which are perfect for weeknights. Those that are simmered or braised for hours to achieve maximum flavor are ideal for weekends, and those that are marinated overnight can be prepared the night before, therefore transiting into a quick-and-easy meal the next day.” I would venture to guess that the recipes that simmered or braised for hours could be done in a slow cooker or in the oven at low temperatures all day while one is gone to work to come home to a delicious easy meal.

Although this cookbook says “Paleo” on it, due to the author’s heritage of Filipino and Spanish, she includes ingredients that are not squeaky clean Paleo like white rice, butter, wine, Worcestershire, arrowroot, and tapioca flour. On page 11 she has a short table of ingredient alternatives to these to provide other Paleo options. I personally have no issue with any of those ingredients and will likely not make swaps.

On pages 194 – 196, she has a “Recipe Allergen Index” to easily reference for those with dairy, nut, grain, and egg allergies. Beware that it is noted here too that all the recipes contain nightshades so they may be difficult for those following an Autoimmune Protocol (AIP).

In the Appendix, on page 192, she has a page that gives helpful tips for “Weekend Prep for Weeknight Meals”, which is fantastic! Seriously, who doesn’t want to make their weekday evenings easier?!

For those that aren’t quite so experienced in the kitchen, I think this would be a great book for you. Not only are we talking easy one-pot meals, but there is a section in the book called “The Basics” on pages 184 – 191 that has bone broth recipes, condiments, rice variations, and common sauces.

It is also nice that it is noted on each recipe that it serves between 2 and 4 people, which is great for those of us with small households. For those with larger occupancy, each recipe can be doubled (I assume that larger families already have to do this and are prepared to do so).

The pictures in the book are beautiful and will make you hungry.

To Buy or Not to Buy….That is the question……I say YES!

Book Review: The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook by: Diana Rodgers

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by ByCandace in Book Review

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#cookbook, #homegrown, #homestead, #paleo, #sustainability, @sustainabledish

I was lucky enough to catch Diana Rodgers of Sustainable Dish when she was in Houston, TX at the end of May this year. We met at the Last Organic Outpost, which is worth going to and checking out what great work they are doing.

She spoke to the guests about sustainability and Paleo with a Q&A followed by book selling and signing. I purchased The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook and Paleo Lunches and Breakfasts On the Go that day. I want to share my thoughts on The Homegrown Paleo Cookbook with you.

First of all, the book has been well produced. It is made of good sturdy materials. The pictures are beautiful. I love the pictures on the front cover of the book.

Although I thought I was purchasing the book for the recipes, because I’m a recipe junkie, I got the book home and realized what a fascinating and fantastic resource this book is. I learned so much from the front section of the book; almost like an interesting text book or encyclopedia…..in the best possible sense.

The book starts out talking about sustainability. Then teaches you how to raise your own food animals (chickens, turkey, ducks, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, cows, bees) including slaughtering and processing. She also covers seafood and hunting. The book then discusses growing your own vegetables and fruits (building your soil, planting, composting). Also, how to forage off your land.

One of my favorite areas of the book is “The Ideal Homestead Setup” on pages 144 – 145. These two pages breakdown, in pictures, how much of each animals etc. you can fit on your various size land parcels.

Then the book goes into the recipes. Since the book is centralized around the sustainability idea she has the recipes sectioned out into seasons: early, mid, and late.

I found that generally speaking the recipes are not necessarily dishes I would make everyday. They tend to be more items I would make for a dinner party. Some of the recipes have longer ingredient lists, which I tend to stay away from, some of them though are ingredients that most Paleoers keep in their kitchens on a regular basis. The other recipes are simple, few ingredients, and look good and easy to cook. I like that she also covered the basics on homemade fermenting (example: Kombucha).

The ending section of the book is quite thoughtful and creative. She continues the sustainability application by showing how to do fun lifestyle things like….naturally died Easter eggs, making beeswax candles, goat milk soap, pig roasting, and making a clambake to name a few. She also discusses the importance of giving back or paying it forward.

I do not have a homestead or parcel of land to apply most of the book, however she covers growing food in small spaces and container growing. She did a good job of making this book apply to everyone. The beginning of the book is inspiring to this country girl…who lives in the city.

This book can easily be used as a “coffee-table book”.

To Buy or Not to Buy….That is the question……I say YES!