http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
It’s mid-December, which means it’s time for some holiday sweets. You won’t find wheat flour in any of these sweets, but it’s one ingredient you’ll never miss. Whether you follow a gluten-free diet or not, these desserts from cookies and candy to cakes and edible gifts, will make your holiday season complete.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
‘Tis the season for lots of cookies and eggnog, and tipsy parties with friends and family alike. Do you want to host a holiday party but have a small apartment or home? If I can fit 30 to 40 people in my 500-square-foot apartment, you can too.
Here are five rules I live by when hosting a bunch of people for a party in my apartment in Brooklyn.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
I don’t follow the Paleo Diet.
Weird, I know. A majority of people who stumble across this site through Google come from our article, “The Beginner’s Guide to the Paleo Diet,” which has been viewed millions of times and shared 40,000+ times on social media. Actually, other than a 30-day full Paleo experiment years ago, I’ve never been 100% full-Paleo.
“But Steve! You run Nerd Fitness! Isn’t this a Paleo Site? You even have a (now free) Paleo iPhone app! You are living a lie! You eat food that is poison. Shame! Loud noises!”
I see you yelling at your computer right now, and it makes me chuckle (like an evil villain).
Here’s the truth: I might not follow the Paleo Diet religiously like many do, but I do follow a “Paleo-ish diet.” I’m healthy, stronger than ever, and found a healthy balanced relationship with food that works for me. I bet it would work for you too.
Time to go ALL IN on moderation! SUPER MODERATION! Radical moderation!
(We’re hiring for a full-time role at Team NF, please check the PS at the bottom of this article for more info.)
As we talk about in our “Is a calorie really a calorie article” eating a caloric deficit is the primary driver of weight loss.
That means at the most basic level: as long as you eat less than you burn, it doesn’t matter if you count calories or practice the Paleo Diet, you will lose weight.
But there’s a reason more than two-thirds of adults are considered to be overweight or obese: it’s not that simple, and it ain’t that easy!
That there’s a tremendous amount working against us in our quest to get healthy. Throw in issues like habits, willpower, sugar, culture, and predictably irrational human behavior, and it can make “just count calories and eat less” feel like a Herculean task.
If you’ve tried counting calories or followed Weight Watchers only to put the weight back on, you know that the strategy can be incredibly fragile (in other words, without the program, things fall apart). In fact, a recent study in explains that we’re all doomed to stay fat if we continue to follow this conventional dieting advice.
That’s where the Paleo Diet can help:
1) When you go on a calorie-restricted diet but don’t change any other aspect of your relationship with food, you will struggle to see long-term results. You get the illusion of change (you see some short-term success) but the changes don’t stick. So, after your diet, you quickly return to your starting weight.
One central reason for this faux-success is that the majority of crappy foods we eat have been designed to target pleasure centers in our brains, make us feel more hungry than we really are, and makes our body scream “MOAR FOOD IN MAH BELLY!!!”
We can resist temporarily and see success (the battle), but unless we change our fundamental relationship with this food, we’ll lose the war.
2) Calorie-restrictive diets are difficult to pull off accurately long-term unless you are militant in your reporting. Depending on what you’re eating and the source of the food, you could be severely underestimating what you’re consuming. That tiny bag of “healthy” snacks that says 100 calories on the front? It has 3 servings in it! Or worse yet, if you are just guessing, a few bad guesses and you’ll be gaining weight when you think you’re losing, which can cause us to get derailed quickly.
3) Calorie-restrictive diets are not antifragile, meaning they break down at the first sign of trouble. Unless all of your foods come out of a box or bag (which I don’t recommend), with accurately labeled amounts (which is unlikely), or you travel with a food scale and check your amounts against a database (which is, again, unlikely), these diets can be difficult to sustain permanently. In other words, if you travel, eat out for business dinners, or attend parties, you may quickly find an excuse to pause or drop your diet plan.
4) Calorie-restrictive diets are simply hard to follow. Words have power. When you practice a calorie restrictive diet, it’s the equivalent of taking half a hit of a drug and telling yourself “you can’t have the other half of this.” You have to constantly tell yourself that you can’t have something or that you can only have part of it. It’s like the psychology trick “don’t think about a pink elephant.” But instead it’s “don’t eat the second half of that meal on your plate.”
For these reasons above, we tend to see more success with people on some form of the Paleo Diet over conventional calorie-restricted diets. Again, in any technique calories need to be restricted, but we feel the Paleo Diet has some advantages:
For people with addictive personalities, and people who have zero desire to count calories (me!), the Paleo Diet is a GIANT step in the right direction of living a healthier balanced life. It’s also a giant step with simple rules to remember. That’s the big win of the Paleo Diet.
The Paleo Diet does two things counting calories doesn’t:
When you follow a Paleo Diet, you are eliminating the hold the Dark Side can possess over your body; it’s much easier to get yourself to eat less sugar when sugar is basically removed from your diet.
But, to get this benefit you don’t have to go 100% Paleo. In fact, I think you can get there just by going “Paleo-ish.”
The important thing is stop thinking of it as a temporary diet or something you are doing until you reach a goal weight, but rather finding a balanced relationship with food that we can live with permanently.
This means we’re still following the basic rules laid out by the Paleo Diet (mostly vegetables, some fruit and nuts, quality meat, fish, and eggs), but if we eat outside the paleo diet occasionally or have a type of food that you eat because it works for you (beans, dairy, rice etc.), that’s okay!
In fact, this might be a BETTER approach for many people in the long term. By incorporating non-paleo foods into your “version” of the Paleo Diet occasionally, you don’t have to struggle with every freaking decision every time you put food on your plate.
Now, this isn’t an excuse to eat a bowl of sugary cereal every morning and call your diet “Paleo-ish.”But if you love beans/legumes or your wife/husband cooks with rice, it might not be worth it to battle to keep them off your plate for the sake of “Paleo purity.”
Think of this like an 80/20 benefit – cut out the crap that takes the most willpower and provides minimal benefit to your health. “Paleo-ish” dieters adopt a hybrid diet by setting a general rule, such as “80% of my meals will be Paleo.”
If you go to a party and have a unhealthy meal, no problem – make your next meal healthy. If you consume dairy with some of your meals and you are healthy and happy, keep doing what you’re doing. Are you trying to build muscle and need to eat a caloric surplus? Eating rice and/or oats to get enough calories/carbs won’t get you struck by lightning for angering the Paleo Gods.
Again, I have zero interest in temporary success for you. If you go full Paleo for 60 days to fit into smaller pants, only to return to your previous way of eating once you’ve “made it,” your rollercoaster relationship with the scale will continue. However, if you make small changes and adapt a paleo-ish “nutrition plan” that becomes your new normal relationship with food, then 2, 3, 5, 10 years from now you’re going to still be living those changes.
Okay, there’s one giant disclaimer when it comes to going “Paleo-ish”: It’s TOTALLY possible to do the “Paleo Diet” wrong. We all know these people in our lives.
We know vegetarians and vegans that delude themselves into thinking they’re healthy by eating “vegetarian” foods, but somehow are always eating foods like like donuts, pasta, vegan lasagna, pizza, and so on.
I had to chuckle when I saw cookies advertised at my gym the other day: they were proudly labeled as gluten-free and vegan… and contained about 500 calories each. Here’s what gluten-free actually means, by the way.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have very outspoken people who are probably doing the Paleo diet horribly wrong too. “Oh you eat rice and dairy? Those things are poison. Here, have a dozen of my cookies. Don’t worry, they’re Paleo.”
In my seven years of running Nerd Fitness (holy crap!), many people have emailed me disappointed, saying they weren’t losing weight on the Paleo Diet, “despite following it perfectly!” When I ask these people to send me a daily diary of how they are eating, the answer is obvious: although they are technically consuming “Paleo” foods, they are consuming 200+ grams of sugar in “healthy!” in snacks like Paleo cookies, Paleo muffins, or loads of dried fruit.
They wonder if they’re broken (“This doesn’t work for me! I’m hopeless!”), instead of realizing that they’re doing the Paleo Diet wrong.
Yeah, fruit CAN be a great part of your long-term diet. In moderation! But don’t think “healthy” fruit juice is anything other than sugar water with minimal nutrients in it. If you are consuming most of your calories from “Paleo snacks”, fruit, and making everything with sweet potatoes and calling it Paleo, you’re missing the point.
In the examples above, we’re avoiding making the tough changes. We’re avoiding doing the hard work. What’s the alternative?
We need to fix our relationship with food.
I eat foods like oats, white rice, and beans regularly. Despite the fact that these foods are clearly spawned from the depths of Hell, I’m healthier, stronger, and happier than ever. I eat them in moderation, just like EVERYTHING else.
Remember: Just because we follow a diet that many claim to cure all sorts of illnesses and ailments, doesn’t mean we can follow it blindly and expect results. I believe the Paleo Diet is better than most diets, but it needs to be done with intention.
Remember, one of the rules of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion is to “question everything.”
The Paleo Diet is not a religious doctrine – it’s a starting point. A starter philosophy to give you a simple, healthy framework to examine how you fuel your body. It’s why we’ve built a leveling system into the Nerd Fitness Academy – if Level 10 is strict Paleo, then we encourage people to hang out around Level 7 (which is a balanced, Paleo-ish approach)
When you break it down, the Paleoish Diet done right should look something like this:
You absolutely can be a healthy vegetarian. You can totally be an healthy vegan. You can be a healthy strict Paleo dieter. You can be a healthy Paleo-ish dieter.
It comes down to your relationship with food and if your diet is structured to help you reach your goals.Your mom was right: you are a unique snowflake, and you need to find a balance that works for you.
I want to hear about your relationship with food.
Have you tried going full Paleo? What about being militant about calorie counting?
What did you learn about yourself when you introduce certain foods back into the mix?
Be honest: if you eat unhealthy foods while being “Paleo,” do you feel guilty about it?
-Steve
PS: I’m hiring a full-time assistant, and we need to hire quickly (applications due by end of the week)! Please head over to the “Work with us” page for more details.
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For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering three reader questions. The first comes from Chris, who’s a little worried his one-year-old isn’t eating a wide enough variety of foods. As it turns out, he doesn’t need to worry, though I do offer a few suggestions for foods to include or offer. Next, how should Verria, a long-time vegan, transition to Primal? Is there anything to watch out for? What physiological and psychological issues will Anita have to face and overcome? And finally, what tips do I have for a fibromyalgia patient whose condition hasn’t improved on a strict very low-carb, high-fat diet?
Let’s go:
Hello Mark,
I just want to thank you for the plethora of free knowledge that you make available on your website.
I have a 12 month old and his diet mainly consists of avocado, sweet potato, eggs (mostly pasture raised from local farms, but in the winter I buy some store bought because chickens don’t lay nearly as much in the cold IL winter) banana and berries. He also drinks coconut water, raw milk from a local farm, some formula and takes a cod liver oil supplement from green pastures. He strays from these main foods occasionally, but they make up the majority of his calories. Is this enough variety for him? How hard should I try to get him to eat a wider variety of foods?
I try to keep broth on hand because of its many benefits, is broth from conventional supermarket chickens and turkeys still good to consume, or should it be avoided?
Thanks again and Grok on,
Chris
That looks pretty solid. You’re doing great.
A 12 month old “needs” about 1000 calories each day. The needs vary on the particular child, of course, and it’ll change from day to day. My kids sometimes seemed to eat nothing at all for an entire day without any ill effect. The key is learning how not to freak out and just let them lead the way. But I digress. Back to your kid.
I plugged 1000 calories of those foods into Cronometer to gauge his nutrient intake, guessing on the amounts and proportions.
A medium banana, a medium sweet potato, two cups of whole milk, a small avocado, a teaspoon of cod liver oil, a cup of blueberries, two eggs, half cup of coconut water. That’s a hair over 1000 calories and gives him a lot of vitamins and minerals. Far more variety than his peers eating rice puffs and carrot sticks and mac ‘n’ cheese, even though the average pediatrician would probably wonder where the hearthealthywholegrains are.
I have a few suggestions.
Try some green vegetables. These won’t provide many calories, or even much micronutrition (you’ve got that covered well already). It will help him develop the taste for vegetables. He may hate what you’ve offered thus far, so keep trying different ones. A kid might detest lacinato kale but love purple kale. Vary the cooking methods. He could hate steamed spinach but love it sautéed in butter. Kids are just people, which means they’re as weird as the rest of us.
Try some meaty bones. Yes, I know your kid isn’t a dog. But toss him a roasted marrow bone. Hand him a chicken drumstick from those pastured chickens. Offer a beef shank. He doesn’t have the teeth to do much, but it’ll help him develop a taste for meat and he’ll gum that thing for an hour. It’s the Primal version of shutting the kid up with an iPad.
Try some white potatoes, cooked and cooled to increase the resistant starch content. It wouldn’t hurt for your kid to eat more prebiotic fiber. These can sometimes replace the sweet potatoes.
Consider some kefir or yogurt. You can easily replace some of the milk with fermented dairy. Get those taste buds exposed to the tang of dairy ferments.
Good job! Oh, and I’m obliged to say, check with your pediatrician, too!
I’ve been vegan for awhile and now that I’ve been diagnosed with an autoimmune illness I’ve done research and maybe I need to eat meat….the challenge is how do I transition back to meat after being vegan for over 10 years? I suspect I no longer have the enzymes to digest meat and I had problems with eggs the last time I tried them. Any advice?
Verria
Studies show that going vegan for a month down-regulates production of the pancreatic enzymes used to digest animal protein. This may happen more quickly than a month, but it’s the only data we have. Either way, it shouldn’t take any longer—and likely much shorter—than a month for your digestive enzymes to catch up and start facilitating meat digestion. Until they ramp up, go easy on meat. Don’t eat a full rack of ribs or go or the 40 ounce ribeye challenge for your first meal.
That’s not the biggest issue, even though it’s what most focus on. After all, humans are obligate omnivores. We’ve been eating meat for millions of years. The scrawniest vegan is built to eat meat, even if the machinery responsible for its digestion is a bit rusty. But that’s temporary and easily overcome.
The biggest impediment will probably be the psychology of meat consumption: you’re suddenly eating flesh. You’re “responsible” for the death of a cute, fuzzy animal, a sentient being robbed of its existence so that you can chow down. That’s heavy. And even if you intellectually acknowledge the benefit of eating meat, your subconscious must grapple with its ramifications.
Gotta turn that around on itself. Give thanks to the animal for its sacrifice. Invoke a higher deity if that’s how you roll. But don’t hide from the fact that you’re supporting death; that’ll only gnaw at your subconscious. Acknowledge that you’re a willing participant in the cycle of life and death which has gone on for millions upon millions of years. The flesh of the animal provides the sustenance you and your ancestors have been relying upon for many millennia. That’s beautiful. That’s your heritage. It made you who you are, even if you ran from it for awhile.
Own it.
I am a 61 yr old female. I’ve been on an LCHF/banting diet for a year now as I have a family history of diabetes and I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I have gone down to a very low level of carbs 25g a day been, in ketosis for a few months and lost only a few kilo in weight (my weight is 72kg).
My main concern is that I haven’t felt any benefit from LCHF diet; no energy, no relief from pain in my muscles and joints. In actual fact I have less energy which was already at a low.
Is there anything I can do to enjoy the benefits that LCHF diet is suppose to give?
Anita
For those who don’t know, the Banting diet is Dr. Tim Noakes‘ take on low-carb, high-fat diets. Based on William Banting, a formerly obese Englishman from the 19th century who lost weight by reducing simple carbs, the Banting diet will be familiar to everyone reading this: emphasize animal fat, reduce carbs (especially sugars and other simple carbs), load upon on green vegetables, limit fruit and nuts and dairy if weight loss slows.
It’s usually a great way to eat, but as a fibromyalgia patient you might have to take special considerations.
There’s not a ton of good diet research into fibromyalgia. Or research at all, for that matter. For years, it was the “invisible illness.” Patients were told it was “all in their head” or that they were “making it up.” How do you run dietary studies into treatment for a disease that doesn’t even exist?
It’s real, of course. But science is still catching up. Let’s look at what little there is for any clues.
Magnesium: In a recent paper (in Portuguese, but the tables are easy enough to read without translation), researchers compared the diets of people with fibromyalgia to those of healthy controls. 100% of fibromyalgia patients had inadequate intakes of magnesium. This jibes with other studies that have found low levels of magnesium (and manganese, calcium, iron) in hair samples from fibromyalgia patients. Studies indicate that the relationship between magnesium deficiency and fibromyalgia may be causally related. In one, transdermal magnesium (4 sprays per limb, twice a day, using magnesium chloride oil) improved quality of life. In another, oral magnesium citrate reduced the spot tenderness and intensity of fibromyalgia, especially combined with amitriptyline (an antidepressant often used in fibromyalgia).
Try taking 200-300 mg of magnesium (if oral, try citrate, malate, or glycinate forms; if transdermal, go with the oil linked above).
Calories: Fibromyalgia patients ate around 1400 calories to the controls’ 1700 calories, a likely artifact of the lower metabolic rates normally found in this population. Going low-carb, high-fat is a fantastic way to spontaneously reduce appetite, increase satiety, control calorie intake, and lose weight, but if the problem is not eating enough food—as it may be for fibromyalgia—VLCHF may push things unnecessarily low. You probably don’t need to go as low as 25 grams of carbs per day.
Try eating a few more carbs.
Vitamin D: Low vitamin D is linked to fibromyalgia symptoms. One recent trial showed that women with fibromyalgia who test low for vitamin D benefit from supplementation, reporting less pain and fatigue.
Test your vitamin D levels and supplement if you need it.
Light exposure: Getting UV exposure on your skin, even from a tanning bed, can ease fibromyalgia symptoms. Getting natural light exposure in the morning and early afternoon and limiting light exposure after dark can improve your sleep and optimize your circadian rhythm, two major factors in fibromyalgia.
Get light during the day and limit it at night.
Exercise: Typical exercise might not help as much as normal. Intense exercise performed to exhaustion, normally beneficial and anti-inflammatory, has paradoxical, inflammatory effects in fibromyalgia patients. This means if you train like I advise, you’ll want to drop everything down a notch. Sprint, but do really short sprints. Lift heavy things, but keep the reps low. Walk as often as you can (especially in natural settings, which may improve your symptoms), but don’t push yourself too hard or too long. Going so hard and long that your lungs and muscles burn is probably counterproductive. A good barometer is how the exercise makes you feel. If you feel good, if your symptoms improve, it’s “good” for you. If the exercise makes you feel bad or worsens your symptoms, it’s probably “bad.” Aquatic exercise can help. Easy stationary (or mobile) cycling can help.
Exercise, but not too hard. Focus on gentle, enjoyable, frequent movement.
And again, talk with your doctor. Hope it helps!
That’s it for today, everyone. If you’ve got input on any of the questions, leave it down below!
Thanks for reading.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Last week Pantone announced that for the first time ever, they have chosen two colors to represent 2016. The two choices — Rose Quartz and Serenity — are reminiscent of light pink and baby blue, but we’re kind of into the subtle hues. Especially after the past several years have been defined by bolder tones, like Marsala, Radiant Orchid, Emerald, and Tangerine Tango.
Take a look at just how well these colors can work in your kitchen.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
If you find yourself constantly battling injuries, excess tension, and stalled progress, you may be illiterate. See, movement is a language of its own. Like any language, it has necessary building blocks and prerequisites. If you want to write a novel, you better be sure you know letters, words, and sentences. Movement is no different.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
If you find yourself constantly battling injuries, excess tension, and stalled progress, you may be illiterate. See, movement is a language of its own. Like any language, it has necessary building blocks and prerequisites. If you want to write a novel, you better be sure you know letters, words, and sentences. Movement is no different.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
A traditional holiday treat, graham cracker toffee recipes have been passed between families for generations. It’s less toffee and more a delicious hack of graham crackers, butter, and sugar. A dear girlfriend gave me a batch of this toffee, along with the recipe, years ago. In that simple act, she fueled years of effortless holiday food gifts for my friends and family. I slip a few pieces — because a little goes a long way — into my cookie boxes during the winter holidays. They’re always the first treats gobbled up.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
All ovens have their own unique quirks, but gas ovens can be particularly tricky. Most of the time it’s business as usual, and then out of the blue, you’ll bake some muffins that won’t brown on top or a cake that bakes unevenly. Wonder why, or what you can do about it? I have a few tips to help you out.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
The popularity of short content in the fitness industry is staggering, especially considering the complexity of the topic. Grabbing attention for attention’s sake now overshadows the importance of high-quality content.
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
Book your class NOW!
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