http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Eczema comes from the Greek word that means effervesce, bubble or boil over. Characterized by red, itchy and inflamed skin which may also be rough and leathery or oozing and crusting, eczema, this painful condition impacts over 30 million people in America. What causes eczema? Although it is not known exactly what causes eczema, researchers […]
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
As a hardgainer who coaches other hardgainers, I like efficiency in the gym. Doing too much training and failing to spend enough time recovering is one of our biggest stumbling blocks. As such, I try to program exercises that get the most muscle building stimulus on a rep by rep basis.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
Pot pies—like sloppy joes—are a comfort food classic that feeds our nostalgia as well as appetite. Meat and veggies in a creamy sauce that’s topped with a crunchy topping…what’s not to love? It might seem, however, that pot pie isn’t compatible with a Primal, let alone keto, plan. Au contraire. We’ve serving up a recipe today that turns that assumption on its head. Pot pie is no longer pie in the sky for the keto eater. Enjoy!
Time In the Kitchen: 40 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
For the Filling
Instructions:
In a large pan with lid, saute the bacon and onion over medium heat.
Add in the carrots and mushrooms. Cook through.
Add in chicken and cover the mixture with chicken stock.
In a separate pot, stir arrowroot with a drizzle of cold water.
Add the flour mixture to the chicken, carrots and mushroom. Add frozen peas and thyme. Lower heat and cook until the sauce thickens.
Remove from heat and distribute evenly in oven-safe bowls or ramekins.
For the Crust
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 ºF/175 °C.
Mix all dry ingredients together.
Mix the egg and the ghee in a separate bowl.
Combine the dry and the wet ingredients together. The dough should be moist like the dough for drop biscuits.
Spread the dough evenly on the ramekins filled with the chicken and vegetable filling.
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden. Put under broiler for a very short time to brown the crust at the end if desired.
Nutritional Information
The post Keto Chicken Pot Pies appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
Ladies, meet your new hero.
Men, prepare to be humbled.
My friend Staci, or Spezzy as she’s known around the Nerd Fitness community, has one of the best transformations I’ve ever seen:
For the women out there who are scared about “getting too bulky when lifting weights,” this article is for you.
If you are intrigued about powerlifting and don’t know where to begin, this article is for you.
If you’re curious what happens to a gal who packs on 40+ lbs of muscle and starts lifting heavy weights, this article is for you.
Staci has transformed inside and out over the past 8+ years, and I want this story to inspire you to go pick up a barbell the next time you’re in a gym. It’s been a privilege to watch her journey day in and day out for those 8 years: Staci actually joined Team Nerd Fitness in a full-time capacity in 2012!
In fact, she’s now our lead female trainer in our 1-on-1 online NF Coaching Program!
Without further ado, here’s an interview/8-year-retrospective/how-to juggernaut of an article on my hero and yours, Staci Ardison!
This is a picture of Staci back in 2009 before she decided to make some changes in her life.
Starting around age 16, she put on weight relatively steadily through high school, college, and beyond, when she reached her peak at 170 pounds in 2009 at the age of 25.
I asked her what a normal day was like before she tried to fix her health:
I’d get up at 7, go to work, have a Slim Fast shake because I never had time for breakfast. I wasn’t a big snacker but I ate a lot for my meals; I’d typically go out to eat for lunch every day and get a sub or something from D’Angelo’s or Subway, and it was never the 6″ one, it was the big one. And chips. Lots of chips. Or french fries. Getting home I’d either go out to eat with friends or plop in front of the TV playing video games for hours.
My favorite meal was tacos and nachos. I just asked my old roommate what I used to eat because I didn’t remember, and she said “You used to sit in front of the TV with a big plate of meat and cheese and go ‘Hm, I guess I should have some chips with this.’” On many occasions, we’d order pizza or takeout around 11PM too. On top of all of that, I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day!
And that’s when her doctor told her that she had high cholesterol and needed to lose some weight if she wanted to live a long healthy life.
Except that she wasn’t really sure how to lose weight, so she did what most people do when they want to lose weight:
Eat way less and run way more.
She joined a gym and started doing the elliptical as much as possible (“because that’s what you do when you want to get skinny, right?”).
STACI: At first I was only able to make it 10 minutes, but eventually got up to about an hour at a time on the elliptical.
I always thought that being super skinny would make me happy, like it was the one missing piece of my life. Everything would just magically be solved if I could just be skinny.
I bought countless exercise machines for my apartment, which all ended up sitting in the corner gathering dust. I bought DDR thinking that if I could exercise in a video game, that would do it. It didn’t.
I even tried “Sweatin to the Oldies” (which, for the record, everyone should do, because it at least gets you laughing and moving). Nothing stuck.
Until I was finally ready. I can’t say what it was, but I just got up one day and said: “OK, I’m going to do this now.” I didn’t set a date ahead of time, I just woke up knowing it was time.
Along with the elliptical workouts, I joined Weight Watchers. But as I started to feel the effects of the weight loss, I got obsessed. I’d weigh myself every day; I got a scale that measured every ounce so I’d know exactly what I lost. How my day went was always based on the number that was on the scale. If I had lost weight, it was a good day. If I had gained, I was worthless and didn’t deserve to have a good day, and had to do a second elliptical session to punish myself.
Following this unhealthy plan, Staci went from 170 pounds all the way down to 110 pounds over the course of a year. And then she started to open her eyes…
STACI: I did lose the weight that I needed to lose, but instead of “finding myself” and becoming comfortable in my own skin, I ended up being LESS comfortable. Everything I did was based on appearance. I couldn’t do certain things because either my body wasn’t “ready” or I was afraid I’d gain an OUNCE back.
I started looking in the mirror and seeing 30 things that needed to change; I developed severe body dysmorphic disorder. When the elliptical and calorie restriction stopped working, I became bulimic; I was just so desperate to be thin. I was tired all the time, I had no energy to do anything even when I was sleeping 10 hours a night. The bags under my eyes were insane. I simply wasn’t getting the nutrients I needed.
It was at this point that I was dating a bodybuilder who informed me I was doing it all wrong. This got the idea in my head that there was a better way, and I started to research nutrition and strength workouts. I got a set of 5lb dumbbells and a Jillian Michaels DVD and tried doing pushups.
I remember struggling to do chest presses with the 5lb dumbbells. And I wouldn’t use weights at the gym because I was so scared of looking like a fool in front of all of the guys on the weight floor. Seriously terrified.
As I found more info on nutrition, I started questioning Weight Watchers, and finally stopped going after I asked a question on how something was healthy and he pulled the line, “we’re not trying to get healthy here, we’re just trying to lose a little weight”[1]. I started doing more research and began my transition to eating more Paleo in April or May 2010. I upped my calorie intake to around 1,500 a day and immediately started to feel better.
On June 1st, 2010, Staci’s work office opened up a gym with free weights, and she started training.
Because she was working out with coworkers and friends rather than random strangers, she felt comfortable giving strength training a try; she felt okay asking coworkers questions on different exercises and less self-conscious that she was doing everything wrong.
Over the next few months, from June until late August, she continued to educate herself on eating better and getting stronger:
STACI: I finished the Paleo transition in August or September, and stopped counting calories, which was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life; it’s a freedom I can’t even describe. I just ate when I was hungry. I gained weight, but I stayed the same size clothes, so what the scale said started to matter less and less. I went from 110 pounds at my lowest to around 130 pounds (both pictured above) and felt GREAT about it. My scale broke in May of that year, so I threw it away and only weigh myself probably once a month these days out of pure curiosity.
It was right around this time on her search for Paleo diet information that she stumbled across Nerd Fitness and saw an article about the Legend of Zelda (her favorite video game series too). She joined our community and continued to put her focus on strength training, and made sure she ate enough to fuel her workouts. She also sought out professional help for her eating disorder and body dysmorphic disorder.
After tons of encouragement from members of the Nerd Fitness community (including from Jon aka “KnightWatch,” now another NF coach) Staci began barbell training:
And just focused on getting really strong with those movements!
For Staci, that first barbell encounter was electric: “When I say that the second I touched a barbell I fell in love, I’m not joking. People say to me, “Oh, it’s not healthy to lift that much….” Lifting to me is like going and playing basketball to someone else. It’s a hobby and a passion. I’m not doing it because I have to, I’m doing it because I want to. I’m simply happier on days that I deadlift.”
And that’s how Staci jumped headfirst into the world of powerlifting.
Over the following six months, she strength trained like her life depended on it, keeping track of her gains and making sure she ate enough to continue getting stronger. She learned the movements, took tips from others, and constantly checked in with the Nerd Fitness Community.
Here are her weight training stats for those first six months:
She raised her deadlift from 135 pounds to 315 pounds, added 50 pounds to her overhead press and 50 pounds to her bench press.
You’re probably wondering what happens to a woman’s figure when she goes through this transformation and puts on even more weight. Allow me to show you!
Believe it or not, Staci is 11 pounds heavier (142 pounds) in the picture on the right (May 2011) compared to the picture on the left (131 pounds, October 2010).
So what the hell happened?
How the heck does she look like she weighs less even though she weighs more?
She packed on muscle while getting rid of fat.
Another 2 years go by and Staci gained yet ANOTHER 8 pounds.
(AUDIBLE GASP)
Clearly now she must have gotten too “bulky,” right?
You’re probably wondering, “Why is she getting leaner but somehow also gaining weight?”
The answer is simple:
Magic.
Okay, maybe not magic. It’s time to bust the worst and most pervasive of the myths relating to women and lifting.
YOU DON’T GET BULKY LIFTING WEIGHTS:
When you strength train with very heavy weights for low numbers of repetitions, you build incredibly DENSE, tight muscle. If you are eating at a caloric deficit, you are keeping the muscle you have and burning the fat on top of the muscle.
So how did Staci gain weight, then? BECAUSE SHE WAS TRYING TO. On top of super heavy strength training, Staci was eating 3,000-4,000+ calories per day (all healthy calories, mind you) to put on the extra weight.
YES, when you lift weights, your body shape WILL change. When you work out and lift, you’ll develop a body that looks more like an athlete – which may not be the super skinny Kate Moss look, but it’s a naturally healthy look.
Which brings me back to Staci.
Although she was training in CrossFit for 2+ years (you can read about our thoughts on CrossFit here), after hitting a goal of competing at Regionals in 2012, she decided that she just LOVED lifting heavy, and switched to training on her own, focusing mainly on strength, with some fun conditioning like swimming mixed in here and there.
For the next four years, Staci continued to pick up very heavy weights, eat more calories than most men, and really focus on getting stronger.
In those four years, Staci put on about another 10 pounds.
Surely by NOW she would get too “bulky,” right?
Surely this is when the whole “women who lift weights get bulky” myth gets proven correct…right?
Hmmmm……nope!
Okay so here we are another 5 years later! What is Staci doing these days?
Did she:
Spoiler alert: all of the above. Duh.
Building a solid foundation of functional strength allowed Staci to work on other skills and pick them up quickly.
I asked Staci what her overall goals are these days:
My overall goal, sport-specific aside, is to be able to do whatever I want to do whenever I want to, without warning, without my body holding me back. And by that I mean if a friend calls me tomorrow and says, “I found a secret treehouse in the middle of the woods, but we need to hike a gigantic mountain and bike 50 miles to get there,” I want to be able to say “I’m in” without hesitation. So I always want to push my body’s limits. Plus, it’s fun!
I really enjoy competing sometimes, but my main goal isn’t to be the best at one sport – I have too many goals I’m working towards!
And rather than tell you about Staci, I’d rather share some recent training videos from her exploding Instagram page:
5 strict muscle ups in a row? No problem:
A post shared by Staci Ardison (@staciardison) on Dec 29, 2017 at 10:21am PST
Deadlifting 325lbs for 8 reps? No big deal:
A post shared by Staci Ardison (@staciardison) on Dec 28, 2017 at 5:44pm PST
Pull ups on a rope? Sure, why not:
A post shared by Staci Ardison (@staciardison) on Dec 27, 2017 at 10:41am PST
Crazy yoga poses with her adorable dog Madi? But of course:
A post shared by Staci Ardison (@staciardison) on Oct 25, 2017 at 6:34pm PDT
Handstand practice for funsies? Hell yeah:
A post shared by Staci Ardison (@staciardison) on Oct 5, 2017 at 5:40pm PDT
Making a 405lb deadlift look super easy? Yup:
A post shared by Staci Ardison (@staciardison) on Sep 21, 2017 at 8:42am PDT
3 sets of 12 reps at 200lbs, no problem:
A post shared by Staci Ardison (@staciardison) on Dec 5, 2017 at 5:42pm PST
HOW STACI IS ABLE TO DO ALL OF THESE THINGS:
Staci can do all of the above because she built a foundation of functional strength.
She got really strong at big movements like the squat and deadlift, and bodyweight movements like push-ups and pull-ups. She cut her body fat percentage so she wasn’t carrying around excess weight. She taught her body that being strong feels good, and learned that being strong makes her happy.
She also did a few other key things for each of these activities:
She also had help! Although she learned a lot on her own, Staci over the past 7 years has worked with different coaches and trainers to learn specific skills or improve her ability in certain movements or lifts, as well as help her with proper programming and periodization. After all, a coach can be a game changer and having somebody who can check your form and offer guidance is like turning on cheat codes for strength gains.
So that’s where she’s at now, but there’s a big question I haven’t answered yet: Just WHAT was she eating to fuel these workouts? After all, we know from Nerd Fitness that nutrition is 90% of the battle when it comes to strength gain and/or weight loss!
So here is her exact nutritional strategy!
Oh what’s that? You want to know EXACTLY how Staci eats too? Of course you do, you’re reading Nerd Fitness and you want all the nerdy specifics you can get your hands on.
Let’s start by taking a look at what Staci eat through the first few years of her transformation.
Here’s an exact week for her back in mid-2012:
Seems like an absurd amount of food, right?
That’s because it IS an absurd amount of food. This is what Staci does day in and day out in order to gain weight so that she can lift heavier weights.
And I think you’ll agree with me that despite all of this extra work to pack on a lot of weight, the last word you would use to describe Staci’s physique these days is “bulky.”
However, Staci discovered in 2013 that she had Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease that messes with your thyroid.
This diagnosis explained a lot of the struggles she had dealing with random weight gain and anxiety, but it was something she had to address. Although it put a strain on her training, she addressed the disease with her doctor – who initially tried to treat it solely through medication – by actively tracking her nutrition and following a VERY specific type of nutritional strategy (while being monitored by her doctor).
This lead to Staci following a strict auto-immune Paleo protocol[2] for food: meats, veggies, and berries. The autoimmune part of Paleo cuts out nuts and seeds, nightshades (tomatoes, onions, peppers), and eggs. After experimenting with this diet, Staci slowly started re-introducing foods and developed a diet that works best for her.
Now Staci eats meats, vegetables, dairy (but only whole and organic grass fed), fruits, eggs, and rice. She doesn’t eat gluten or soy anymore, no matter what. This may sound restrictive, but she really enjoys it and feels better than she’s felt in her entire life.
She also became a master batch-meal-cooker, preparing her meals for the week step-by-step.
I asked her a few other questions about her diet, specifically: “Do you miss the junk food you used to eat?”
STACI: The thing is…I don’t. Once you’re off of all of the sugar and processed foods, you don’t even think about it. I got ice cream the other day, which has always been my huge weakness, and it was so sweet that I actually had to mix it with berries and even ended up throwing some of it away.
It always bothers me when people will be like “come on, why don’t you live a little!” when I’m out to eat. I’m eating this way out of choice, because I want to. I LOVE steak, I LOVE shrimp, I LOVE broccoli – why would I eat pasta or pizza when I can have any of those? Processed food actually tastes fake to me now, and I don’t feel good afterwards. I really, truly, actually do not want it.
Now, many people would say “Isn’t it super expensive to eat only healthy food all the time? Isn’t it much easier to opt for the cheap, quick, and easy fast food?”
STACI: Sure, it can be, but I made it a priority in my budget. Batch cooking and meal prep saves a lot of money and actually makes it cheaper to eat this way. But also, to me, feeling amazing and being healthy is more important than having 1,000 channels, getting the newest gadgets, or living in the most luxurious apartment. Plus, I save A LOT of money by not going out drinking.
Also, healthy eating doesn’t need to break the bank!
Sure, Staci changed physically, and her attitude changed, but how she thought about the gym changed too.
Instead of looking at the gym as a negative thing, and how horrible it’s going to be using the boring elliptical, she changed her attitude. Now she thinks, “Hey! I get to do squats today! I wonder if I’ll hit a personal best?”
STACI: “There have been nights where I’ve actually had trouble sleeping because I’m so excited about deadlifts the next day.”
I know it sounds silly, but that little mental change really does make a big difference, especially if you keep doing it.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention something else Staci did that was really powerful: she evaluated the relationships in her life and leveled those up too.
STACI: Most people have been super supportive, but others definitely think that I’ve gone too extreme. I learned to drown out the voices pretty early, and just do what I felt was the best for me. With diet, I remember the first few people I told about Paleo definitely were not supportive and were more worried than anything. I started telling people that certain foods just “didn’t sit well with my stomach” or that I was allergic (turns out, it was sort of true). It worked great.
Staci has also had to deal with really negative people that couldn’t deal with her healthy evolution and she had to sacrifice them (not literally!).
I’ve known Staci through nearly this entire journey because she became an active member of our community at the very beginning. Her transformation over these past 7 years has been awe-inspiring. Watching her go from shy message board poster to veteran team member and now lead female trainer at Nerd Fitness has put the biggest smile on my face.
I’m proud to call her a friend and honored to have her as a teammate.
When most of us reach adulthood, we usually get bigger, slower, unhealthier.
Staci bucked the trend, and instead became healthier, stronger, happier, dealt with a lot of baggage (smoking addiction, eating disorders, Hashimoto’s disease), and came out the other side a powerlifting superhero badass woman. In looking back over her journey and interacting with her practically every day for these 8 years, I can identify a few things she did that specifically aided her on her quest:
#1 SHE EDUCATED HERSELF
When Staci started her weight loss journey, she didn’t really know any better and didn’t know where to turn, so she did what she thought was right: she starved herself and spent hours and hours on treadmills and elliptical machines.
After this left her miserable and depressed, she started doing her research and finally learned how to eat properly.
Shed discovered strength training and started learning how to get stronger. She learned how to do a squat, deadlift, bench press, and other basic strength moves like push-ups.
She used 20 seconds of courage to start training in a commercial gym, quickly realizing that she had every right to train with the guys in the free weight section.
#2 SHE FOCUSED ON STRENGTH, NOT HER WEIGHT
We know that “appearance is a consequence of fitness.” Rather than worry about her weight and how it fluctuated on a daily basis, Staci threw away her scale and only focused on getting stronger. She tailored her meal plan (which is quite extensive) around getting stronger. She understood that it is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR WOMEN TO GET TOO BULKY FROM LIFTING WEIGHTS (and “bulky” is quite subjective anyway, right?). So she simply tracked her workouts and tried to get stronger each week, knowing that her appearance would change as a result of this strength. I’d say it worked!
#3 SHE ATE RIGHT
What you eat will be 90% of your success or failure when it comes to fitness and health. Staci tried the “eat way less food” method of weight loss, and it turned her into a sickly person with an eating disorder who struggled with 5-pound dumbbells. She got professional help to overcome her disorder, educated herself on nutrition, focused on consuming the right foods for her body, and now no longer worries about how many calories she eats. She has boundless energy, way more confidence, and is happier as a result.
When she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, she worked with her doctor to treat the problem through a strict nutritional strategy rather than just resorting to medication and pills. It required a fairly large pivot, but Staci will tell you that feeling strong and healthy is worth it.
You can read about our Paleo article here and our strategy for healthy eating.
#4 SHE TRACKED HER WORKOUTS
Staci is a nerd like you and me, which means she loves numbers and stats. You can go back through her old posts on our message boards and see exactly how much she was lifting and how she was training over the years. She tracks every one of her workouts she’s ever done, and can always refer back to them!
On weeks where she didn’t see as much success in the gym, she examined factors like diet, stress, and sleep, and made adjustments where needed to break through any plateaus.
On weeks when she didn’t feel as healthy, she could figure out what needed fixing and how to fix it. As long as the amount of weight at the end of the bar kept going up, she knew she was progressing in the right direction. In other words, “in order to crack the problem, you gotta track the problem!”
#5 SHE HAD A COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT
Staci jumped headfirst into the Nerd Fitness community, asking questions about strength training, participating in our monthly challenges, and asking for support in her quest to live a healthier life. She has since joined our team, became a lead trainer for our 1-on-1 coaching program, is a huge presence in the online community for the Nerd Fitness Academy, and has made friends in gyms across the country. And thanks to this success story, she’s inspired hundreds of thousands of women to start strength training!
#6 SHE NEVER STOPPED LEARNING AND SLAYING NEW DRAGONS
Look at Staci’s training regimen in 2019: gymnastic rings, handstands, yoga, swimming, powerlifting, bodyweight training, and Olympic lifting. In 8 years, I have seen Staci evolve and adapt her workout program dozens of times. While many people miserably run on a treadmill and go on a diet until they reach their goal weight (only to put it all back on) …Staci was different.
She understood the concept that “you never get to be done, so you might as well enjoy the journey.” Staci doesn’t HAVE to go to the gym, she GETS to go to the gym. It makes her feel alive. Learning new skills and having new goals consistently keeps her on target and working harder to live better.
You never get to be done – so don’t go on diets or follow a workout program you hate. Pick activities you love and get addicted to progress. Staci got hooked on picking up heavier and heavier weights, and now she’s hooked on seeing what her body is capable of!
In other words, what do you do after you slay a dragon? Go find a bigger one!
“Staci is so awesome. I want to be like her when I grow up, even though I’m older than her” is something you might be saying right now.
You’re inspired and fired up and know that women can lift heavy and still look great and you want to get started. But you have no idea what you’re doing or where to begin, which is why I’m here.
HOW TO BE LIKE STACI:
STEP 1: Get started with bodyweight training by following our Beginner Bodyweight Workout Routine, until you can complete the routine completely.
STEP 2: Read our entire Strength 101 sequence, where we cover how to strength train with weights. Practice at home with a broomstick or PVC pipe to build confidence with the big movements and then…
STEP 3: Read our complete guide on how to train in a gym! Head to a gym and complete your first strength training routine!
STEP 4: Repeat and try and learn and do and mess up and pick up slightly heavier things and repeat and try and fail and succeed and learn a lot about yourself in the process. It’s the journey, not the destination; enjoy it!
Know that you’re not alone on this journey. We have a community of hundreds of thousands of people all over the world that want to help you! But we can only help you once you decide to get started.
What’s that you say? “Steve this all sounds well and good, but please I just want somebody to tell me EXACTLY what to do every day so that I have the confidence and peace of mind that I’m doing things correctly!”
Don’t worry, I got you covered there too!
IF YOU WANT TO BE TOLD EXACTLY WHAT TO DO:
I don’t care how you get started, just that you start!
You might have to deal with jerks in a gym who think they know better, but I promise you they don’t. You have just as much a right to lift in the gym as they do, and you have as much right to use the free weights section as they do.
Go get strong, and be like Staci!
-Steve
###
https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/
Not all mothers identify strongly with motherhood, just as not all mothers give the birth of their child much thought after the fact.
However, for a large number of women, birthing a baby is one of the most transformative moments of their life: it is when a new part of their identity is revealed, that of becoming someone’s mother.
Birth itself is a process that can be physically demanding, exhilarating, unnerving, joyous, heartbreaking, life-changing, frustrating, happy, unpredictable, empowering, and so much more! There are as many descriptions of birth as there are mothers on the planet.
Women make up to 75 percent of all training clients and, in the U.S. alone, 85 percent of all women will be pregnant at some point in their lives.
As a coach and trainer, if you work with women, it is extremely likely you will have at least a few women clients who have given birth.
One aspect of being a mother that isn’t as readily discussed yet in Western society is how the act of birth itself can impact a woman.
Birth story refers to the recounting a woman does of the birth of her child. In this narrative she may describe not only the medical and physical processes, but also her feelings, her thoughts, the challenges she faced, from her own unique perspective.
Some birth stories are hilarious! Others are heart-wrenching. There is no right or wrong birth story — they each serve a multitude of purposes, out of which the most important might be helping the mother contemplate and make sense of the experience she has gone through.
Storytelling has been an essential thread in the fabric of humanity for as long as humanity has existed.
Across millennia, through stories, humans have passed on teachings, lessons and cultural identity, and fostered community, bonding, communication, and survival. This may explain why many women volunteer their birth stories as soon as they found out their friend is pregnant, or why birth stories abound each time mothers of young children unite, such as in infant playgroups.
Community, bonding, communication, survival — the very fabric of humanity at work!
If you tend to compartmentalize clients’ lives and assume that other areas of their life do not directly impact the training and coaching you do with them… we’ve got news for you!
Let’s flesh out some of the ways in which her birthing experience may be impacting your client’s training experience. The following points are equally applicable to brand-new moms as well as women who had their children years or even decades ago:
Ideally every woman client who has been pregnant or has given birth should visit a pelvic health physiotherapist and be cleared for exercise.
If existent, the factors above will come into play as you design a program for your client, and will need to be taken into consideration during training sessions.
If so, you can probably imagine this will directly impact the work you do together.
Think of a client who perceives themselves as a failure. Now think of one who holds a can-do attitude. How she thinks of herself will surely have an impact on how your training experience goes, and birth can be one reason why this self-perception is altered, either positively or negatively.
Similar to the point above, the experience of giving birth and how a woman internalizes the process can play a big part in how she views what her body is capable of accomplishing.
If there are follow up appointments, physical therapy to pursue, how is she managing the follow-up work with a newborn (or, potentially, with the grief of loss) in tow?
How is she coping with what happened or was done during the birth? It is often said “At least you have a healthy baby!” in response to a woman’s difficult emotions toward how the birth played out. This is dismissive and reduces her entire person to one outcome.
Of course women want healthy babies, that goes without saying! But this doesn’t mean your client doesn’t get the right to voice and work through any feelings of anger, frustration, disrespect, sadness, or despair that may have arose as a result of her birth experience.
Some births are traumatic: scary life or death situations in which the woman or her baby’s life are in danger. However, a birth doesn’t have to be a medical life-threatening emergency in order to be traumatic — many factors and each woman’s unique lense will make it out to be the experience it is for each.
Obstetric violence is a term coming to light recently, and it encompasses a number of human rights violations women can encounter during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum. It is considered an intersection between violence against women and institutionalized violence, and it manifests in a number of ways:
Each of the above represent a violation of human rights, including right to freedom from discrimination, right to information, right to reproductive autonomy, etc.
It is very possible that some of your clients will have encountered instances of obstetric violence. By being informed that such a phenomenon exists you are already helping in some way.
For some women it can be very helpful and comforting to know they are understood in the pain they have endured and that others believe and grasp the gravity of the situation. You may not be able to take away the pain of how your client was treated, but by understanding this term and what it means you may help lessen her suffering.
The work starts with you, coach: before you even think about asking a woman about her birth experiences, check in with yourself and make sure you are ready to receive all that may come your way.
Some of the things they will describe may conflict with your own personal values and beliefs; but this isn’t about you and what you would have done in their situation. This is about them and their story.
Your only role as a coach is to honor the information shared and find the best ways to help your client in the measures available to you.
What we are looking for are clues and insights. This includes physical symptoms that may impact her training, of course, but also mental state around the event and emotional processing of what happened, since all of it could play a role in how she relates to her body now.
We cannot say this enough: when going down the path of something as deeply personal and potentially triggering as childbirth, you must first and foremost come equipped with your utmost empathy and compassion.
Do your best to tap into what your client is feeling as she describes her story. Voice back some of her key statements so she understands you are listening attentively. If her story is mired with difficulty and complicated emotions, seek to connect:
Tears may flow as these narratives take over; some will be happy tears, others will not.
Don’t be afraid of being human and letting your own feelings show — often this display of shared humanity is exactly what our clients need in order to feel seen and heard.
Talking with our women clients about their births can shed light into important physical, mental and emotional insights about them, which are very valuable to us as wellness professionals.
Aside from how this knowledge can be applied in our practice for her benefit, by giving them a space where to share their birth stories, which are often intimate and deeply personal, we are also fostering profound connection and meaningful, long-lasting relationships.
The post How to Talk to Your Client About Their Birth Experience (and Why It Matters) appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
So you’re interested in eating only plants, eh?
Well, you’ve come to the right place to learn all about it. I’ve seen many people over the years have success with a Plant-Based Diet.
Truth be told though, I’ve seen many people also struggle with it too.
(After all, donuts are “plant-based” and pizza just got declared “a vegetable”).
There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to embark on eliminating animal products from your diet.
Today, I’ll share with you how to safely and correctly follow a plant-based menu and still hit your goals.
Now, although I’ve been running this site for 10 years, I may be drawing a large target on my back by diving headfirst into a topic I’ve thus far avoided.
As a blogger, if you want to tenfold your hate mail, take a stance on a Plant-Based Diet.
And saying ANYTHING about veganism – for OR against – is an easy way to get virtual produce tossed at you.
Although most people discover Nerd Fitness through our guides on Paleo or Keto, we get SO many questions on how to eat a Plant-Based Diet that I figured I’d give my two cents.
With pop stars and famous directors advising folks to try veganism, these inquiries are only going to increase.[1]
So today, we are going to talk about how to eat a Plant-Based Diet safely.
The right way, and the wrong way, to go vegan or vegetarian.
BIG ASS CAVEAT: I’m not going to try to convince you to give up meat. If you’re reading this, I’ll assume you’re here because you’re interested in doing so, and want to know the best path through it.
The politics, controversy (yes, I’ve read the China Study[2]), and geopolitical impact of veganism are beyond the scope of this article. I’m just a nerd who studies the hell outta health and wellness and sometimes wears pants.[3]
So setting all the controversy aside, I want to explore the science and the “how to” for people who are heading down this path.
Let’s goooooo!
There are quite a few different versions of a Plant-Based Diet.
It’ll be good to start with some definitions so we land on the same page.
According to the Vegetarian Society, a vegetarian is someone who “does not eat foods that consist of, or have been produced with the aid of products consisting of or created from, any part of the body of a living or dead animal.”[4]
So NO eating:
Instead, vegetarians DO eat:
Plants, more or less.
“Vegetarian” can be a broader term for more specific examples of plant-based eating. Some examples would be:
Lacto-ovo-vegetarians is someone who doesn’t eat animal flesh but does eat dairy and eggs. This is the most common type of vegetarian.
Lacto vegetarians don’t eat eggs but do eat dairy.
Ovo vegetarians avoid all animals products, with the exception of eggs.
Vegans avoid all animal products, including dairy and eggs and even things like honey. If it came from an animal, it’s not a part of a vegan diet. Some even take it one step further and eat only a “raw vegan” diet, where the plants consumed are not cooked prior to consumption.
The above are the most common forms of Plant-Based Diets, but there are others!
A pescatarian is someone who consumes no animal products except fish and shellfish.
A flexitarian is someone who follows a vegetarian diet a majority of the time, but who will occasionally eat meat.
Now granted, neither pescatarians nor flexitarians are technically vegetarians because both contain animal products on the menu.
However, they are mostly plant-based, so worth mentioning – especially if somebody is doing this in an attempt to be healthier.
There are many more considerations and labels, which can tackle a lot of the ethical stances around being vegan: not wearing animal products, the treatment of animals, etc.
To be blunt, this is outside the scope of this article.
I’m only interested in “If you are going to eat only plants, how do you do it?” So we’ll politely ignore clothing, testing, and captivity for this article.
Which brings us to…
What you can or cannot eat on a Plant-Based Diet depends a lot on what kind of vegetarianism you follow.
Eggs and dairy, for example, may or may not be included. It really comes down to what path you are choosing.
There are some general food groups we can consider as universal no matter what form of vegetarianism you follow.
A Plant-Based Diet will include the following foods:
Whole grains. Rice, oats, barley, and buckwheat would all be examples of whole grains. Most vegetarian diets include a sizable amount of whole grains as their base.
Vegetables. Of course, a vegetarian diet is going to include vegetables! And it should because vegetables are great for you! They’re packed full of nutrients, fiber, and generally low in calories. Most people could stand to eat more veggies. If you find yourself not being able to stomach greens, I got you. Check out this post for tips on how to turn around any vegetable hater.
Legumes. Beans, lentils, and soy make up the legume family. If you’re following a plant-based or vegan diet, legumes would be a great way to get protein (more on this to follow).
Fruit. Bananas, apples, and oranges all come from plants, so all are vegetarian-friendly. While high in fructose (sugar), they are also nutrient dense. Our general stance on fruit around these parts is to eat “in moderation.”
Nuts and seeds. Again, they come from plants, so almonds, cashews, and pumpkin seeds are good to go on any vegetarian plan you pick. So is quinoa, which although is often thought of as a grain, is actually a seed. Mind=blown.
Nuts and seeds, although high in fat and calories, are another great way to get protein on a Plant-Based Diet.
No matter what type of vegetarian diet you pick, you’d be free to eat the above (provided they fit into your current nutrition goals – but I’ll get to that shortly).
The below will depend on what kind of vegetarianism you are trying. We may be stepping into controversial waters (remember, don’t shoot the messenger) with the following:
Eggs. Eggs are a great source of vitamin B12 and protein, which will become important in a section further down.
Dairy. Whether or not you consume dairy will be determined by your specific strain of plant-based nutrition. On the one hand, it’s from an animal (moo). On the other hand, dairy can be full of nutrients that might be harder to source from only plants, like omega-3s and calcium.
Fish. Look, I get it. Fish are animals, so technically not allowed on a vegetarian diet. However, if you eat a mostly-Plant-Based Diet that includes a little fish, it wouldn’t be too different from a Mediterranean Diet. There are a lot worse ways to eat than like the Mediterraneans. And as mentioned earlier, depending on who you talk to, being pescatarian could be a form of a Plant-Based Diet.
That’s a lot of the major food groups when it comes to plant-based eating.
So here’s all you need to remember:
Whatever form of vegetarianism you may pick, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Pinto beans, asparagus, apples, and quinoa would all be examples of real food. These are nutrient-dense foods that will keep you full and energized throughout your day. Deep fried cheese balls, donuts, and candy bars are examples of “plant-based, but not real” food.
And I’ll give out a warning on processed vegan junk food in a moment.
For now, there may be a question you are thinking.
It’s one of the most common ones we get when it comes to eating a vegetarian or vegan diet.
…MAYBE!
There are plenty of examples of people losing weight on a Plant-Based Diet.[5]
However, there are also stories of the opposite where people gained body fat when going vegan.[6]
However, anecdotal evidence isn’t science.
What does the research say?
If you look at studies on the subject, there’s nothing here that will surprise us: plant-based calories count just as much as animal-based calories.[7]
There are some studies which show the success of veganism compared to omnivore diets for weight loss.[8] Then there are others showing that a diet including meat outperforms vegan diets for trimming body fat.[9]
Depending on who you’re trying to impress, you can find six studies that say vegans will lose more weight than meat eaters, or half a dozen studies that show vegans will lose less weight.
It honestly doesn’t matter, because when it comes to weight loss, it comes down to calories, calories, calories.
Oh and calories. Did I mention calories?
Put bluntly, if you’re not losing weight, you’re consuming too many calories.
It doesn’t matter if they’re vegan or vegetarian or Paleo or certified organic. Check out our “Why can’t I lose weight?” article to learn the science behind why!
Let’s get to the point: You’re here, you’re eating plants, and you want to lose weight. So here’s how to do it.
If you typically ate a standard American diet filled with burgers and french fries, and then moved to salads? Yeah, I’d imagine that you would lose weight – simply because you’re now eating fewer calories than you were eating in the past.
However, if you go from scarfing down normal burgers to scarfing down an Impossible Burger or a vegan burger? Maybe not.[10]
Let’s take a look:
The Impossible Burger is made with wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein and heme (a molecule found in plants and animals). So it’s very calorically dense.
Moral of the story: don’t assume that food without any meat in it will have fewer calories in it.
While there are plenty of nuances, when it comes to weight loss, calories in and calories out plays a major role in whether or not you are successful.
Just because something is vegan doesn’t mean it’s necessarily healthy. As someone pointed out in our private Facebook Academy group, “Oreos are vegan.”
If you don’t plan properly, you could be deluding yourself into thinking veganism will be a weight loss strategy.
I know that adopting a new lifestyle can be challenging, especially if you’re really busy. Whether it’s veganism, a low-carb diet, or trying to build muscle, embarking on a new habit can be tough if you don’t know what to do.
Weight-loss, no matter which strategy you pick, can be a hard road to follow.
I want you to know that you’re not alone, we’re here to help. We offer a 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program to help busy people like you embark on complete life overhauls. We can help you with dietary changes, exercise, and accountability so you can create new healthy habits that fit into your chaotic day-to-day life!
If you’re thinking about a Plant-Based Diet for weight loss, we can help you switch to a less restrictive diet over time. Slow and steady is our preferred approach.
If you’d like to learn more, click on the big image below:
Contrary to popular belief, you CAN get enough protein when following a Plant-Based Diet.
However, protein consumption SHOULD be something that’s prioritized if you’re trying to lose weight, build muscle, and be healthier. What we call “protein” is actually a combination of different amino acids. There are 20 or so amino acids that we use to build muscle and keep our organs functioning.
Nine of these amino acids our body can’t produce itself, so we need to get them through food.
Getting all nine is important, because these amino acids do everything from build and repair muscle tissue (which is HUGE for strength training), run our metabolism, and even help our genes function correctly.[11]
All nine are found together in all forms of meat. When you eat a piece of chicken, you are getting all nine.
When it comes to non-animal sources, most plants will generally be missing one or two of these nine essential amino acids.[12]
Soy might be the best way to get all nine together in one plant; however, soy doesn’t seem to provide the same biological functionality as dairy or eggs.[13]
You can overcome this small challenge easily by varying your dietary choices.
Let’s look at the most common example:
Eat them together, and you’ve covered any amino acid deficiency![14]
To recap: if you eat some kind of unprocessed starch (rice, corn, potatoes, beans), combined with some fruits and vegetables during the day, you’ll be covered.[15] The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics explains “Protein from a variety of plant foods, eaten during the course of a day, supplies enough of all indispensable (essential) amino acids when caloric requirements are met.[16]
Did you catch that caveat?
As long as you are meeting your calorie requirements from “plant foods,” you’ll get all your necessary amino acids. But this only works if your calories are coming from plants, not cookies.
I’ll say it again: EAT REAL FOOD.
Eating a variety of foods will help build up a diversified nutrient profile, including amino acids. Oats with one meal, lentils with the next, and rice with dinner, for example.
This would be a better strategy than just living off soy.
And DEFINITELY better off than living off of Soylent Green…
To recap this section: vegetarians can get plenty of protein. It just really depends on what they are eating.
So why are we focusing so much on protein?
Because, muscles.
Look in the right places and have the right conversations, and you’ll be able to find uber successful plant-based athletes that have built plenty of muscle.
For example, Danielle Sidell is a CrossFit athlete who follows a 100% Plant-Based Diet:
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Danielle Sidell M.S. (@dani_sidell) on Jan 14, 2019 at 10:26am PST
David Carter, a defensive lineman in the NFL, calls himself “The 300-Pound Vegan.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by David Carter (@iamdavidhcarter) on Apr 30, 2018 at 7:22pm PDT
Let’s not forget about Jeremy Reijnders, another CrossFit athlete and vegan proponent:
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Jeremy Reijnders (@jeremyreijnders) on Jan 29, 2018 at 11:08am PST
And one last example to round things out: Joe Venus, a vegan bodybuilder who gets anywhere from 80-180 grams of protein daily through big meals.[17]
Putting on muscle with a Plant-Based Diet is certainly not impossible.
If you analyze how these athletes eat, you’ll notice many similarities to other “omnivore” elite athletes, and a few places where they diverge:
Let’s look at a typical day for CrossFit athlete Danielle Sidell:[18]
“Typical breakfast is 2 slices of sprouted bread with vegan butter, half an avocado, mini fruit salad with strawberries, grapes and blackberries with peanut butter drizzled over the top and a cup of coffee.
My snack before lunch is some roasted chickpeas and plain popcorn – it’s a really filling snack.
For lunch I’ll do a serving of Beyond Meat’s chicken or beef crumbles with jasmine rice, a serving of veggies and another half of an avocado.
For afternoon snack I’m typically on my way to the gym so I’ll have a banana, spoonful of peanut butter and a glass of unsweetened soy milk. I like soy and pea milk the most because they have lots of protein.
After I workout I’ll do a shake with pea protein and dextrose. For dinner I’ll have a cup of some sort of beans, hummus for the extra fat, some sweet potato and another serving of something by Beyond Meat.
Then for a snack I’ll do a whole bell pepper with hummus or a serving of beet chips.”
Compare that to any other athlete, and you’ll find very similar strategies: get the correct amount calories for your goals, and eat plenty of plants. The only difference is protein sources! And protein is how you build muscle.[19]
Again, it’s not impossible to get enough protein strictly from plants to build muscle, it simply takes foresight, some understanding of your macros, and planning. So although there is an observed correlation between muscle size and animal protein intake, we all know that correlation doesn’t equal causation.[20]
Just because someone doesn’t eat meat, doesn’t mean they will have less muscle or smaller muscles. To put it another way: eating meat doesn’t necessarily lead to bigger muscles, either!
To recap: if you are looking to strength train and build muscle on a Plant-Based Diet, it comes down to protein consumption, total calorie count, and training regiment!
At this point, you may be asking, “Steve, how much protein do these plant-based athletes have to eat? How much protein does it take to build muscle?”
Great questions. There’s some debate on this.
There are estimates that you need .8 of a gram to 1 full gram of protein for every pound (or 1.6-2g for every kg) you weigh.[21] Another study found it might be as high as 1.4 grams of protein for every pound you weigh.[22]
I’d say 1 gram of protein, for every pound of lean body mass, is a good solid number to shoot for if you are trying to build muscle. If you don’t know how to calculate your lean body mass – just go with 0.8 grams per pound (1.6 grams per kg) and adjust up or down from there depending on your results.
Let me get to a more important point here: As with EVERY athlete pointed out above (Danielle Sidell, David Carter, Jeremy Reijnders, and Joe Venus):
They all supplement with isolated plant protein for increasing protein intake without dramatically increasing calories or carbohydrates.
Here’s why: Dr. John Berardi from Precision Nutrition points out, “You just can’t avoid carbs in a vegan plan.”[23]
As you’ll recall, plants have less protein but more carbohydrates and more calories than animal sources:
The same size serving of black beans has less protein, twice as many calories, and more carbs compared to chicken. If your goal is weight loss, you need to be aware of your calorie intake.
If you try to get the same amount of protein from black beans as you would from chicken, you’re going to end up consuming 2-3x the number of calories and a tremendous number of carbohydrates.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re an athlete or strength train! After all, carbs aren’t evil HOWEVER…you could struggle with CERTAIN body fat percentage goals if you are going plant-based.
That’s not judgment or a challenge or anything in between – it’s just reality.
Dr. Berardi highlights the biggest challenge of strength training on a Plant-Based Diet: It’s not that you can’t bulk up. It’s that due to the inherent nature of how plant-based protein-rich foods are structured, you are potentially more likely to increase your body fat through overconsumption of calories:
“I feel it’s actually going to be pretty easy to build muscle on a vegan plan – you just have to eat a lot of food. What’s probably difficult is getting super ripped.
These foods have a high percentage of carbs compared to proteins and fats. It’s not a problem getting lean on a vegan plan. But to actually preserve muscle mass and be bodybuilder-lean, that might be a challenge.”
The solution: if you consume more carbohydrates in order to hit your protein goals, then you’ll need to eat less fat to keep your calorie intake in balance.
One goes up, the other goes down.
This ensures total calories don’t increase to such a point that you start to put on fat.
Is there a preferred ratio of macros? Sure…though your results may vary! Some people do better on a low-fat diet, while others do better on a high-fat diet. This is true of a Plant-Based Diet or any other diet!
Hulda B. Waage, a vegan powerlifter, suggests those trying to strength train on a Plant-Based Diet aim for fat intake at around 15-20%, with protein at 20-30% and carbs at 55-60%.[24]
For comparison, the International Society of Sports Nutrition generally will recommend fat intake to be around 30%.[25]
The only consistent constant of successful athletes: Whether they’re high carb or low carb, high fat or low fat, they all prioritize adequate protein consumption. This can be aided by protein supplementation – covered in our next section!
Your results may vary, because you are a unique snowflake.
Our advice would be to track your macros and track your results – see how your body adapts and changes, and then adjust along the way!
Before we wrap up this section though, it should go without saying that not only will you have to eat right to build muscle, you’ll also have to actually work out and train.
We have a whole Strength Training 101 series on Nerd Fitness that can walk you through EVERY step of that process.
Want to take it with you? Download our free guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know, which will give you an exact plan to follow to build muscle and gain strength.
Grab the guide free when you sign up in the box below and join the Rebellion!
If you’re struggling to hit your protein intake goals for the day, it’s worth looking into a protein supplement.
My go-to protein powder is whey, easily the most popular and efficient protein supplements you can take.[26] When I can’t hit my protein goals with my regular meals, I drink a whey protein shake to fill the gaps.
Whey is a dairy product, so would fall into the menu of a vegetarian, but not a vegan. If you’re going 100% plant-based, these are not the powders you’re looking for.
You’ll have to forgo it.
Here are our recommendations and suggestions for plant protein powders:
If you want all three in a mixture (my recommendation), you can do it yourself or find a company like Vega that makes a blend of pea, rice, and hemp protein.
You can mix any or all of these powders with almond milk, some berries, and oats for an awesome vegan smoothie. My friend Matt Frazier over at No Meat Athlete has some great vegan smoothie recipes for you to check out.
Want some more recipes on how to prioritize protein on a Plant-Based Diet?
Let’s do it!
So we’ve laid out a few key foundational pieces of a healthy Plant-Based Diet: :
Let’s break this all down and look at what a day of eating vegan – with adequate protein intake – looks like.
We’ll keep it at .75 gram of protein for every pound of lean body mass because it makes the math easy, and can help manage hunger/satiety.[29]
Let’s calculate for a 200-pound male, who is 5 foot 9, and just started strength training.
Let’s also pretend this person just turned 35.
If you’re keeping track at home, our newly created imaginary friend needs to eat 150 grams of protein per day.
How can we get to 150 grams of protein, using only plants? With the help of some recipes from Fit Men Cook and Minimalist Baker, I’ll show you how:
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Afternoon Snack
Dinner
Late Night Snack
BOOM! 150 grams of protein, with no animal products whatsoever.
Total calories?
2,024.
If we calculate the needs of our imaginary 35-year-old male (who weighs 200 pounds and is “lightly active”), using our Total Daily Energy Expenditure Calculator, we know this comes in under the 2,522 calories recommended for weight maintenance:
Which means if this person eats like the above, he’ll build muscle and lose weight like a champ.
Now, if this person was 145 pounds and wanted to bulk up, they would simply increase their calorie intake by following similar strategies as above. Not eating enough is an uber common mistake I see people make who are trying to bulk up.
This example daily menu was chosen to show you, that with a little bit of thought and preparation, eating adequate protein is possible when following a Plant-Based Diet.
You just have to plan carefully (that theme again).
Did you notice something about all the foods we recommended? Not a whole lot of junk food to be seen.
This was not an accident.
Throughout this article, I’ve been using the terms “vegan diet” or “veggie diet” and “Plant-Based Diet” interchangeably.
At this point though, we need to differentiate.
Pizza, fettuccine alfredo, bowls of sugary cereal, grilled cheese sandwiches, and calorie-bomb burritos can be vegetarian.
Donuts, pasta, and bread can be vegan.
Plant-based? Technically, sure.
Healthy? Wrong!
If your goal is weight loss and a healthy check-up at the doctor, eat plants. Full stop.
You know the drill: vegetables, fruits, tubers, etc.
Things that you can pluck from a tree or pull from the ground, clean, and then eat. Those are whole foods that will have a lot of the fiber and nutrients intact.
Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, sums it up well: “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.”
Now, I’m personally not saying to never eat pizza or donuts. Pizza and donuts are amazing. Just know that these processed, calorie-heavy foods are easy to overeat and are part of the reason for expanded waistlines.
In other words, if you treat them as a treat, and know your calorie goals, you can make it work.
I’ll say it again: if you’re gonna be a vegetarian, please eat vegetables. Some of the unhealthiest people I know are vegetarian, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them eat a veggie.
This highlights one of the greatest mistakes people make when going vegetarian or vegan. They only think about what they are cutting out (meat), without actively considering what they are replacing those foods with.
Remember our example of protein in plants vs. animal products:
If you are going to follow a Plant-Based Diet, you won’t have as much leeway as your omnivore friends. They can gobble down a serving of steak and receive 62 grams of protein from that piece of meat alone.
62 grams of protein is almost half of the requirements of our imaginary friend from earlier.
We had to figure out breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks to get us to 150 grams of plant-based protein. Compare this to an omnivore who could eat some eggs, steak, and a chicken salad and be pretty much at 150 grams of protein (and a lower calorie count too).
That’s why the American Dietetic Association’s states “vegetarian or vegan diets” need to be “well planned.”[30]
When you do the math, because a pound of body fat equals around 3,500 calories, a 500-calorie per day deficit would result in 1 pound of weight loss per week for this person.
Unless of course, he overeats on donuts and Oreos and vegan burgers and pizza.
So, minimize the vegan junk food and prioritize foods that will help you meet your goals.
Another mistake I see vegetarians specifically make is simply replacing meat with buckets of cheese.
Let’s go with another comparison:
So be careful of just swapping out meat for cheese, because you’ll end up with less protein intake and more calories overall.
Another common mistake we see over and over again is people just switching to “fake meat” when they start a Plant-Based Diet.
Let’s dive into this with its own section.
Throughout this article, we’ve encouraged the consumption of REAL food.
Vegetables, fruits, legumes, etc. As we mentioned, these are nutrient dense, low-calorie foods that can help with a healthy life.
However, something we see time and time again over here at Nerd Fitness is rebels just switching “real meat” to “fake meat” when starting a Plant-Based Diet.
This switch can be a big concern because some of these products are highly processed and full of additives and refined oils you want nothing to do with.
Sometimes you’ll find a veggie burger whose patty is just mashed up black beans with a little onion. That would be fine!
Most other times, you’ll find processed foods like tofurky, facon, and mock chicken nuggets that are quite unhealthy.
Not all imitation meat is created equal.
Here’s what you should be on the lookout for:
TONS of ingredients. This would be a good rule of thumb for most food: be wary of foods that have a long list of ingredients. Things like “modified corn starch” or “hydrolyzed wheat gluten” should raise some red flags. It means the foods have been processed and then processed again. This can strip a lot of the nutrient content out of the food.[31]
If they have to add “hydrolyzed wheat protein” to make a veggie sausage look and taste somewhere in the ballpark of a real sausage… eh, maybe skip it and just eat some lentils instead.
They might not be “vegan.” Many veggie meats will include things like egg whites and casein (a milk protein) as binding agents and to increase the protein content.
In my opinion, if you’re okay with this, perhaps you can just eat plain eggs without all the other added ingredients and preservatives.
Watch out for sodium (salt) content. Sodium is often used as a preservative, so lots of processed food will include a decent amount of salt. We should note, this is also true of processed meats too.
If you eat a lot of meat substitutes, you’ll likely be taking in a lot of salt too. Be aware of this and perhaps minimize salt intake with other foods to compensate.
I asked one of our NF coaches, Kerry (a pescatarian), about some trusted brands to source meat substitutes. Kerry is a brilliant coach and only occasionally eats fish, so I knew she’d be a great source of knowledge on the subject.
Here are some brands to consider when looking into a meat substitute:
Beyond Meat. Both Kerry and CrossFit athlete Danielle Sidell mention Beyond Meat as a good source of meat alternatives. Their burger substitute is made out of pea protein and not too much else. You can find their products at many grocery stores.
Hilary’s. Another brand with minimal ingredients in their products is Hilary’s. For example, one of their veggie burgers is beans, sweet potato, coconut oil, chilies, and a few other things. Not bad.
Again, you can find their products in grocery stores.
No Evil Foods. I’ve got to hand it to No Evil Foods. Their Comrade Cluck “No Chicken” only has seven ingredients, one of which is water.
It should be noted, that most of their foods rely on wheat and gluten for protein. If you can process both okay, No Evil Foods is a good option.
That should get you started on some meat substitutes to experiment with.
Also, we should discuss tofu and tempeh. They are both meat substitutes that are made from soy. These are generally minimally processed as well, so they’ll contain few ingredients outside of soy.
They are also time tested.
Folks in Asian cultures have been eating tofu and tempeh for centuries, providing them a good source of protein.[32]
If you’re looking for meat substitutes, tofu and tempeh would be worth looking into.
If you’re male and worried about soy disrupting your hormones and causing “moobs,” we dive into the science of that in our article “How to Get Rid of Man Boobs.”
Okay, that about does it for our warning on fake meat.
Let’s shift gears and start chatting about vitamins and minerals.
If you are moving forward with a plant-based or vegan diet, based on our research we would recommend supplementing your diet with a few key things.
I won’t get into it too much in detail here on whether people evolved to eat meat or not.[33] Again, trying to keep the inevitable amount of hate email to a minimum.
In addition to the massive protein supplement section above, these are the supplements I would recommend:
In my research, vitamins like B12 consistently comes up as a deficiency amongst vegans.[34] This is logical because plants don’t need B12, so they don’t store it.[35]
Vitamin B12 is critical for protein metabolization, meaning if you want your body running correctly, you really don’t want to be deficient in this essential nutrient.[36]
I would hedge my bets and take a B12 supplement. It would be my number one recommendation (outside of eating REAL food) if you’re going vegetarian or vegan. Taking B12 came up multiple times as a recommendation for a Plant-Based Diet from our vegan rebels in the private Academy group.
This B12 supplement is a good option.
It’s not the only supplement worth considering.
You could also consider taking an algae supplement, which is high in omega-3 fatty acids.
Why omega-3s?
Vegetarian folks generally have lower levels of these types of acids, because meat (fish specifically) is a great source for omega-3s – a food that isn’t consumed on a Plant-Based Diet. However, animals are not the only source for omega-3s. Again, I’d look into an algae supplement, like this one.
Another supplement worth discussing: Vitamin D. We get it from the sun, and also by eating certain animal products. While some plants like algae do contain some Vitamin D, it’s most abundant in fish and dairy products.[40]
Vitamin D helps us absorb calcium and also plays a critical role in our immune system.[41]
However, because many of us spend time indoors, we can be deficient – though this is true of vegans and omnivores alike.[42]
Simple solution: go out in the sun more frequently, and consider a vitamin D supplement in the winter months.
Two other minerals worth discussing would be zinc and iron, because vegetarians are often low in both.[43]
Here’s why:
A supplement of both zinc and iron would be smart.
It should be noted, that all supplementation becomes more important the more strict you are about avoiding animal products. If you eat eggs and dairy, you’ll get most of the nutrients you need outside of those found in plants.
Eggs contain omega-3s, B12, and small amounts of vitamin D. And while this is for sure debatable, there might be some ethical ways to purchase eggs.[45]
That about does it for supplementation recommendations. If you want to do even more research, let’s turn you in the right direction.
There’s all sort of information for going vegan online.
However, you need to be careful about who you trust. Some of it is garbage (no, broccoli doesn’t have as much protein as steak).[46] Although some of it is well researched and backed by science.
Let’s point you to some respected advisors.
BLOGGERS:
RECIPES:
That should help get you started with moving to a Plant-Based Diet.
So you’re gonna adopt a Plant-Based Diet!
Great. Good luck, soldier! Alright, let’s do this. I would encourage you to follow our recommendations here:
#1 Eat Real Food
If you’re going to be a vegetarian, eat actual vegetables. Don’t make it about what you are not eating (meat). Make it about what you are actually eating (plants).
That’s why I’ve been using the term Plant-Based Diet. I want you to actually eat plants. Don’t let the fact that an Oreo is technically vegan make you lose sight of the fact that it’s highly processed and full of sugar.
Eat a Plant-Based Diet.
#2 Calories and Macronutrients Still Count
Cutting out an entire major food group does not guarantee you will lose weight or be healthier. An Impossible Burger has more calories but less protein than a regular beef patty.
Vegan does not equal “less calories.”
Calculate how many calories you will need to make your goals (you can do so right here), and then make a plan on how to follow through.
#3 Prioritize Protein
Animal products are calorie for calorie the best sources of protein. You will have to put in extra effort to think about how you are getting your protein from plants.
Also, you will end up eating a lot more calories trying to match the same amount of protein as found in meat (remember there are more calories in beans but less protein than chicken).
Every meal you eat should have a solid source of protein: beans, lentils, oats, tempeh, etc. If you are strength training (which you should do), this is even more critical.
Consider a protein powder like pea, rice, or hemp to add protein with minimal calories attached.
#4 Meal Planning For the Win!
Everyone should meal plan. If you’re trying to lose weight or just be healthy in general, knowing where your next meal is coming from is really important.
If you are going to cut out a major food group, this is hyper-OMG-please-be-careful- critical.
I will again mention that the American Dietetic Association’s states that Plant-Based Diets can be healthy if they are “well planned.”
#5 Add Variation
I mentioned earlier, that if you allow eggs and dairy, eating a Plant-Based Diet becomes much easier. You simply have more options to choose from when it comes to what to eat.
Perhaps allowing small concessions with a Plant-Based Diet – like eating eggs – will make your diet more manageable and sustainable. This could be better than going vegan for 30 days and then giving up.
#6 Supplement
Make sure you are getting all the nutrients you need. There are things like B12 that just don’t find their way into plants.
That’s why the Mayo Clinic advises those following a Plant-Based Diet to get checked for “vitamin B-12, iron, ferritin, calcium and vitamin D.”[46] Statistically, vegans come up often as deficient in these vitamins and minerals.
I believe that all of us should eat plants (sorry, Carnivores, you won’t get me endorsing you fully). Fruits and vegetables are packed full of nutrients your body needs to thrive. So no matter which way of life you pick, eat plants!
Do some push-ups.
And, ah, be nice to each other?
Debates on how we should eat can often get heated. Which can be understandable, because of the passion and ethical considerations driving people’s dietary choices.
However, I’d recommend acting curious towards the other side. I wouldn’t recommend tying your identity to a style of food, but rather tying your identity to “I’m a curious person that learns new stuff and tries new stuff all the time.”
No matter how someone else eats, don’t turn your nose up against them.
Be nice, and let them do their thing. This can be true for veganism, Paleo, Keto, or an Intermittent Fasting protocol. If someone is trying something new, don’t immediately put them down for it. You may legitimately learn something from someone else’s way of life.
Which hey, is a pillar of our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness: “Question everything.” Including the way you eat compared to others.
I think that about does it for my advice on eating a Plant-Based Diet. In summary, stick to REAL food and think about a supplement or two.
Now, I really want to hear from you! I know there are many vegan and vegetarian folks in the Rebellion.
Can you share with us your experiences? Tips and tricks you follow to make it work? I’d love for the comments here to be a place where we can share honestly and openly.
For the Rebellion!
-Steve
PS: Seriously, be nice. The internet has enough people being mad at other people they’ve never met.
PPS: If embarking on a complete life overhaul stresses you out, we can help!
I’ll again remind you of the Nerd Fitness Coaching Program! We work with busy people just like you level up their lives. Whether it’s through dietary advice (Plant-Based or not), creating workouts, or providing accountability, we are here to help you create a healthier version of you. Click right here to learn if we are a good fit for each other.
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All photo citations can be found right here.[47]
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We’ve all heard the story. Maybe we’ve even been the protagonist.
Person goes full keto. They lose a bunch of weight, normalize their pre-diabetic glucose numbers, resolve their high blood pressure readings, have more energy, feel great, and have nothing but high praise for the new way of eating.
Except for one thing, everything seems perfect: their cholesterol is sky-high. It throws a wrench into the whole operation, installs a raincloud over the procession, spoils their confidence.
“Could I be killing myself?”
“Are my health improvements just a mirage?”
In other words, are the apparent benefits of keto merely superficial if your cholesterol skyrockets?
The evidence is pretty clear that for the majority of adults who go keto, their cholesterol numbers improve.
In obese adults with type 2 diabetes, a ketogenic diet improved blood lipids and boosted fat loss compared to a low-calorie diet.
In lean, healthy adults without any weight to lose (and who didn’t lose any weight during the course of the diet), total cholesterol went up from 159 to 208 mg/dL and triglycerides fell from 107 to 79 mg/dL. A lipophobic doc might freak out at the rise in TC, but given that the triglycerides dropped, I bet the change reflects a rise in HDL and an overall positive, at worst-neutral effect.
Another study of lean adults with normal cholesterol numbers found that going keto improved their lipids, reducing triglycerides, increasing HDL, and leaving LDL unchanged. Those with small pattern B LDL particles (the “bad kind”) saw their LDL particle size increase, on average. All told, keto was beneficial.
But you aren’t everyone. You aren’t the average of a population. And, given the number of readers I have and the number of people trying a ketogenic diet, there are bound to be some people whose lipid profiles go in the other direction.
I don’t give medical advice here, and I always encourage people to partner with the physicians for health solutions. That said, let me share some thoughts on the keto-cholesterol question….
I’m not just talking about high total cholesterol or high LDL-C. I’m talking about what appears to be the real, legit risk factor for a cardiac event: elevated LDL particle number. According to experts like Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Chris Masterjohn, atherosclerosis occurs when LDL particles infiltrate the endothelial lining of our arteries. Thus, it’s not high LDL cholesterol that increases the risk of atherosclerosis—LDL-C is the cholesterol found inside the particles— it’s a high number of LDL particles in circulation. The more LDL-P, the greater the chance of them becoming oxidized and infiltrating the arterial wall. There are many factors to consider, like oxidative stress, inflammation, and fatty acid composition of the LDL particles, but all else being equal, a greater number of LDL particles seems to increase the risk of a heart attack.
I asked Dr. Cate Shanahan for her input on this topic, and she provided a beautiful explanation:
But when you stop eating so many carbs insulin politely steps aside, and your insulin levels plummet. Now your body fat can more easily and more often release its stores of fatty acids into your bloodstream.When your body fat releases stored fatty acids, any unused fatty acids quickly get picked up by the liver and packed into VLDL lipoprotein. VLDL is a precursor to LDL. So in reducing your insulin levels and increasing your body’s use of fat, you will raise your VLDL, LDL and total cholesterol. You are simply trafficking in fat more often now. And now, because your body stabilizes fat carrying lipoproteins with cholesterol, there is a need for more cholesterol in your blood. These are not bad consequences. They are in fact happy signs your diet is doing what its supposed to be doing.
If you’re actively losing weight, you will probably experience a rise in cholesterol. This is the transient hypercholesterolemia of major weight loss, and it’s a well-known phenomenon. Once your weight stabilizes, cholesterol should normalize—although to a lesser extent than other diets, given Dr. Cate Shanahan’s explanation of increased “trafficking in fat.”
The thyroid is a barometer for your energy status. If you have plentiful energy to spare, thyroid function is normal. If your body perceives low energy availability, thyroid function may down-regulate. Since the thyroid plays a big role in regulation of LDL receptor activity, its downregulation can lower LDL receptor sites. Fewer LDL-receptors clear LDL particles from the blood. Folks with genetic predispositions to heart disease often have low LDL receptor activity, causing elevated LDL particles. Folks with genetic variants that increase the activity and expression of LDL receptors have lower heart disease rates. Although genes often have different effects that may affect disease risk via other pathways, that’s pretty strong evidence that LDL receptor activity regulates, at least in part, one’s LDL-P and heart disease risk.
Read this post for maintaining thyroid function on keto, and check out Elle Russ’ Paleo Thyroid Solution for an even deeper, more thorough dive into thyroid health.
Some keto people pride themselves on gorging. Some are doing it for a good cause—a quest to find the fabled metabolic advantage. Some are doing it to show off and for keto cred—look how much salami I can eat! Some are using keto to deal with unresolved issues with food itself.
Everything I say about doing keto presupposes that you are eating like a normal person. You’re eating as much as you need to fuel your brain and daily activities, fitness and performance goals. You’re leaving the table satiated, not stuffed. For most people, this happens without even trying. It’s why keto is so effective for weight loss.
Genes aren’t destiny, but they do modify and regulate our response to a given environmental input.
Some people are dietary cholesterol hyper responders. Unlike the majority of the population, they absorb tons of dietary cholesterol and do not down-regulate their endogenous production to accommodate. The result is an increase in cholesterol synthesis and absorption, leading to a spike in blood cholesterol.
Some people are sensitive to saturated fat. In response to it, they produce elevated numbers of LDL particles. If your keto diet is high in saturated fat and you have a genetic sensitivity to it, your cholesterol will probably skyrocket.
Some people have genes that reduce the activity of their LDL receptors. This will necessarily boost LDL particle numbers.
This topic—genetic variance and how it affects keto—could be an entirely separate post, so I’ll leave it at that (and probably come back to it in the future).
Huh? Too much butter, Sisson? Is such a thing even possible?
Maybe. Subjecting cream to the butter-making process strips it of something called milk fat globule membrane (MFGM). And when you compare equal amounts of dairy fat through either cream (with MFGM intact) or butter oil (with MFGM absent), you get very different metabolic effects. Those who ate 40 grams of dairy fat through butter oil saw their lipids worsen, including ApoB, a surrogate for LDL particle number. Those who ate 40 grams of dairy fat through cream saw their lipids unchanged, and in the case of ApoB even improve. That’s 4 tablespoons of butter compared to 4 ounces, or a half cup, of heavy cream.
Caveats apply here. The subjects weren’t eating a low-carb or ketogenic diet; they just added the butter or cream on top of their normal diet. But in keto people who are genetically susceptible, huge amounts of butter may be responsible for rising LDL-P.
I still love butter. It doesn’t affect my lipids like that. But your mileage may vary, and it’s something to think about if you’re in that situation.
For what it’s worth, whole food dairy like full-fat yogurt, kefir, and cheese do not have the same effect on lipids as butter. They also happen to be keto-friendly and more nutrient-dense.
Kidding… It’s true that swapping out some of your animal fats for polyunsaturated seed oils will almost certainly lower your cholesterol levels. It does this by increasing LDL receptor activity, but, being far more unstable than other fats, omega-6 PUFAs also increase the tendency of the LDL particles to oxidize. And since oxidized LDL are the ones that end up wedging in the arterial walls and causing issues, loading up on PUFAs might not be the right path.
You know what just occurred to me? This is an aside, but maybe linoleic acid (the primary fatty acid in seed oils) up-regulates LDL-R activity because the body recognizes the inherent instability of linoleic acid-enriched LDL particles and wants to clear them out before they can cause trouble. I hope some researchers take this idea further.
Half a package of cream cheese for a snack.
Dipping an entire stick of pepperoni into homemade alfredo sauce and calling it dinner.
I’m not saying cream cheese is bad. It’s great. Nor am I suggesting you never eat pepperoni, dipped in alfredo sauce or not. But the amounts are unreasonable. And turning those into regular meals is a bad idea. There’s no reason you can’t go keto while eating a hamburger patty or ribeye over a Big Ass Salad. Far more nutrients, far more micronutrients, and it tastes way better.
Maybe if you’re a nomadic horselord sweeping across Europe in the early Bronze Age, you need to eat an entire lamb intestine stuffed with marrow and organs, and you should wash it down with a quart of creamy mare milk. Such a meal would provide the calories you need to see your enemies driven before you and go great with the lamentations of their women. But you’re not a Yamnaya nomad. You’re you.
You probably don’t need that much food, that many calories, and that much fat—since there’s plenty of it on your body already, waiting to be liberated and converted into energy. Therein lies the beauty of keto. That’s what this is all about: Getting better at burning your own body fat.
The overzealous and protracted drive to demonize all sources of saturated fat as evil has led to a vociferous backlash from the other direction. But just because the supposed experts got the saturated fat issue wrong doesn’t mean the opposite is true: That all the fat we eat should be as saturated as possible.
For one thing, eating nothing but saturated fat is very hard to do using whole foods. Very few animals exist in the world, past or present, with only saturated fat. The only exception I can recall is the coconut, a curious sort of beast that spends most of its time hanging from a tree impersonating a large hairy drupe. Your average slab of beef fat runs about 50% saturated fat, 45% monounsaturated fat, and 5% PUFA. That differs from cut to cut and depending on the diet of the animal, but not by much. It’s similar for other ruminants like bison and lamb. And the most prominent saturated fatty acid in ruminant fat is stearic acid, a fat that converts to monounsaturated oleic acid in the body and has an effect on cholesterol indistinguishable from MUFA or PUFA.
Or take the fatty acid composition of game meat—the type humans encountered and consumed for our entire history.
I could go on, but you get the idea: Humans have been consuming a wide range of fatty acids for millennia. It probably makes sense to emulate that intake.
Once again, the folks whose cholesterol goes nuts on keto are outnumbered by those whose cholesterol improves. But if you’re one of the unlucky ones in the former category, try broadening your fatty acid intake (to, ahem, possibly include more nuts):
They even have a version of keto called the Spanish ketogenic diet, which features a lot of extra virgin olive oil, olives, fish, and red wine. It works great and might be a good alternative for people whose cholesterol goes wild on saturated fat-heavy keto.
Maybe, maybe not.
But be honest about it. You can’t oscillate between championing positive changes to blood lipids on a keto diet and pooh-poohing negative changes to blood lipids on a keto diet.
You can’t use positive changes to prove the efficacy and safety of the ketogenic diet, then turn around and claim that negative changes don’t count because keto dieters are understudied. What if those “positive” changes are actually negative in the context of a ketogenic metabolism? After all, keto dieters are largely understudied in both directions. If what’s unhealthy in a normal dieter might be healthy in a keto dieter, what’s healthy in a normal dieter may be unhealthy in a keto dieter.
I write these things as a strong proponent of spending a significant time in ketosis. As someone who frequently hangs out in a ketogenic state. As someone who wrote a book about keto and is writing another. But also as someone who insists on maintaining strict intellectual honesty and integrity.
We simply don’t know what very high cholesterol numbers mean in the subset of ketogenic dieters who experience them. I strongly suggest not being too flippant about them.
True: There aren’t any perfect studies examining the utility of conventional cardiovascular risk factors in people eating the type of keto diets you see in the ancestral health space. Maybe your elevated LDL particle number doesn’t mean what it means in the average overweight adult eating the Standard American Diet. Maybe your inflammation is low enough that the risk of atherosclerosis and oxidative modification of LDL is low. But I wouldn’t take that risk, not until we have more data.
What do you think, folks? How did keto affect your blood lipids? Did you make any changes, and if so, did they work? Thanks for stopping in today.
Note: This information isn’t intended as and shouldn’t be considered medical advice. Always consult your doctor in the management or treatment of any health issue.
References:
Hussain TA, Mathew TC, Dashti AA, Asfar S, Al-zaid N, Dashti HM. Effect of low-calorie versus low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet in type 2 diabetes. Nutrition. 2012;28(10):1016-21.
Phinney SD, Tang AB, Waggoner CR, Tezanos-pinto RG, Davis PA. The transient hypercholesterolemia of major weight loss. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991;53(6):1404-10.
Phinney SD, Bistrian BR, Wolfe RR, Blackburn GL. The human metabolic response to chronic ketosis without caloric restriction: physical and biochemical adaptation. Metab Clin Exp. 1983;32(8):757-68.
Kleinveld HA, Naber AH, Stalenhoef AF, Demacker PN. Oxidation resistance, oxidation rate, and extent of oxidation of human low-density lipoprotein depend on the ratio of oleic acid content to linoleic acid content: studies in vitamin E deficient subjects. Free Radic Biol Med. 1993;15(3):273-80.
Rosqvist F, Smedman A, Lindmark-månsson H, et al. Potential role of milk fat globule membrane in modulating plasma lipoproteins, gene expression, and cholesterol metabolism in humans: a randomized study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2015;102(1):20-30.
Raatz SK, Johnson LK, Rosenberger TA, Picklo MJ. Twice weekly intake of farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) positively influences lipoprotein concentration and particle size in overweight men and women. Nutr Res. 2016;36(9):899-906.
De luis D, Domingo JC, Izaola O, Casanueva FF, Bellido D, Sajoux I. Effect of DHA supplementation in a very low-calorie ketogenic diet in the treatment of obesity: a randomized clinical trial. Endocrine. 2016;54(1):111-122.
Pérez-guisado J, Muñoz-serrano A. A pilot study of the Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet: an effective therapy for the metabolic syndrome. J Med Food. 2011;14(7-8):681-7.
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Coffee is undoubtedly a staple of the American culture and a vital part of many peoples morning routine. There’s nothing quite like a fresh pot of joe to make your day a little brighter and give you that much-needed energy boost. Plus, it is a great source of antioxidants and, when prepared properly, a great […]
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The world has never turned faster. We are chasing the kids out of the house, battling traffic, rushing to meetings, and constantly responding to email. Engulfed by this whack-a-mole lifestyle, many simply conclude they no longer have time to exercise. Yet, there is something else at play, as well.
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One of the main reasons why people are unable to stick with Paleo is that they feel overwhelmed; the grocery shopping and cooking involved can certainly be a major adjustment if you’re not used to preparing your own meals. Fortunately, there is a simple way around this potential roadblock and to make your diet changes stick—start meal prepping!
In this article, I’ll cover the art and science of meal prepping, as well as provide you with valuable tips and tricks for making the Paleo lifestyle affordable and time-saving, even if you’re on a strict budget and tight schedule.
Want to skip ahead? Use these links to jump to a new section:
Why should you start meal prepping? Simply put, meal prepping saves you time and money and, by ensuring that you have good-quality meals to eat on a daily basis, helps you stick to your diet!
If you want to start meal prepping but you’re not sure where to begin, this article is for you. Get time- and money-saving tips and learn how to plan and prep your Paleo meals successfully. #nutrition #wellness #chriskresser
The thought of having to cook 21 separate meals every week (breakfast, lunch, and dinner times seven) can seem daunting to Paleo newcomers. Because it’s simple to batch cook foods ahead of time, rather than making complete meals from scratch every day, meal prepping saves you valuable time in the kitchen.
The costs associated with regularly buying takeout or eating at restaurants really add up (and such food, unless you pay a premium, is typically lower in quality). Meal prepping, on the other hand, saves money because it involves cooking at home with ingredients that you can easily buy affordably in bulk. (Keep reading to learn more strategies for eating Paleo on a budget.)
For many of us, our action-packed days are a series of decision-making sessions that leave us exhausted and deplete our willpower—leading to “decision fatigue.” Decision fatigue can make us more likely to lounge on the couch and order takeout after work than hit the gym and cook a wholesome meal. By deciding on all your meals in advance, meal prepping reduces decision fatigue and frees up some of your willpower, helping you stay on track with your diet and your other health-related goals.
While meal prepping pays off, it does require some planning on your part. In this section, I’ve provided you with handy guides, tips, and tricks to make each of these steps as painless and straightforward as possible.
The first step towards successful meal prep is to get rid of foods in your fridge, freezer, and pantry that aren’t serving your health. Toss or give away items like processed foods, industrial seed oils, and refined sugar. Get rid of items that have already been opened and donate unopened items to a food pantry. And before you panic that your shelves will be bare, remember that you’ll be replacing these foods with healthy staples!
To start, you eliminate unhealthy foods and potentially problematic foods for 30 days. Then you systematically reintroduce those possibly problematic foods to determine which ones you can tolerate. This diet is specifically designed to reduce inflammation, identify food sensitivities, and reduce allergic reactions—in addition to improving your overall health.
If you’re beginning a Thirty-Day Reset, eliminate these foods (at least temporarily):
Under a Paleo template, your main focus should be on getting rid of packaged, processed food. Eliminate foods made with industrial seeds oils and goods that include hidden sweeteners or food additives. While there are some healthy packaged foods out there (and you should check the ingredient label if you’re unsure), a good general rule is if it comes in a bag or a box, throw it out.
Here are some common items to toss:
Once you’ve eliminated those foods from your kitchen, it’s time to restock with healthy staples.
Non-starchy vegetables are a nutritious and affordable staple in the Paleo lifestyle. Stock your fridge and freezer with fresh or frozen broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, green onions, bell peppers, and leafy greens.
Whole fruits such as berries, apples, pears, bananas, mango, pineapple, and citrus fruits are excellent sources of vitamin C and phytonutrients. They make a great snack on their own or can be added to smoothies. However, avoid fruit juice because its lack of fiber allows fruit sugars to be absorbed more rapidly, resulting in spikes in blood glucose levels. In fact, diets heavy in fruit juice are linked to an increased risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, whereas whole fruit consumption does the very opposite, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. (1)
Starchy plants such as sweet potatoes, white potatoes, plantains, winter squash, taro, cassava, beets, turnips, and rutabaga are affordable, nutrient-dense, satiating foods to include in your diet. Stock up on these vegetables when they’re available seasonally; many of the tubers and root veggies will keep for quite a while when properly stored in the refrigerator. If you have trouble finding some of the more exotic tubers at your grocery store, consider checking out Asian markets, which frequently stock taro and cassava.
High-quality protein is a staple of the Paleo diet and can be prepped ahead of time. Purchase grass-fed and organic beef, bison, chicken, turkey, and eggs from your grocery store or farmers market or directly from local farms. Check out EatWild to find farms near you offering grass-fed and organic meats. I also recommend eating wild seafood several times a week as a source of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, selenium, and many other micronutrients. Thrive Market and Vital Choice both offer excellent selections of wild, sustainable seafood.
As you may know by now, Paleo encourages the consumption of plenty of healthy fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, red palm oil, avocado oil, pastured tallow and lard, and duck fat. Select a few of these fats and keep them on hand for sautéing, roasting, baking, and dressing salads.
Nuts and nut butter make for a great Paleo snack. If possible, buy soaked and sprouted nuts because these processes remove much of the anti-nutrients from nuts, making their nutrients more bioavailable. You can also soak and sprout raw nuts yourself at home. Avoid buying roasted nuts covered in vegetable oils, as the roasting process causes the fats to go rancid.
Spices can quickly add interest to any Paleo dish. Invest in a spice rack and stock it with staples such as oregano, thyme, rosemary, cinnamon, and turmeric.
If you’re planning to do any Paleo baking, then you’ll want to stock your pantry with a few Paleo flours and sweeteners. Try cassava, almond, coconut, and tigernut flours for baking Paleo cookies, brownies, or cake. Coconut flakes are a nice addition to homemade Paleo granola. Keep cans of full-fat coconut milk (preferably a BPA-free version such as Native Forest Simple Organic Unsweetened Coconut Milk) on hand along with Paleo-friendly sweeteners such as raw honey, maple syrup, stevia, coconut sugar, molasses, and monk fruit sweetener.
Depending on your personal Paleo Template, you can also stock up on things like white rice, buckwheat, full-fat dairy products, legumes, and chocolate. Just look for organic products that aren’t processed or refined.
Now that you’ve eliminated unhealthy foods and restocked your kitchen with healthy staples, it’s time to start planning your meals! This part of the meal-prepping process is fun, will save you time in the kitchen, and will even tempt you to try new tastes and flavors.
Start by planning your meals on a weekly schedule. You can do this in one of two ways.
Take a pen and paper and figure out how many breakfasts, lunches, and dinners you will need for the upcoming week. Factor in things like date nights, meals with clients, and travel. Once you know how many meals you’ll need for the week, decide what to eat for those meals. See the sections “What makes a good meal?” and “Which foods work best for meal prepping?” below for ideas. Make a grocery list based on your notes.
There are many useful apps that will help you with meal prep—and some are even tailored specifically for Paleo. These apps provide you with recipes, chart out your meal schedule for the coming week, and automatically generate a grocery shopping list based on your meal plan. (Check out Step 4 below for an overview of my favorites.)
Once you’ve laid out your meal plan for the week, display it in a place where everyone in your household can see it. This way, you can get input from them and ultimately create weekly meal plans that will make everyone well fed and happy.
After the first few weeks of planning meals regularly, I realize it can be easy to fall into a rut, using the same few recipes repeatedly. But dietary diversity is crucial for meeting our nutrient needs and for feeding our gut microbes, so I recommend introducing new foods and recipes regularly. Start by adding one new vegetable per week and work your way up from there.
What exactly should the meals on your meal plan look like? First and foremost, choose nutrient-dense, whole foods. To learn more about how to select nutrient-dense foods, read my article “What Is Nutrient Density and Why Is It Important?”
Secondly, try to create meals that contain a balance of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. Eating well-balanced meals promotes satiety, modulates your body’s blood sugar response, and even enhances nutrient uptake from food. For example, eating protein with carbohydrates moderates the spike in insulin caused by dietary glucose, and consuming fat with vegetables enhances the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients such as carotenoids. (2, 3)
While I typically don’t advise people to count calories or obsess over macronutrient ratios, some people need to do so for health reasons. If you are one of those people, I highly recommend using a meal planning app to make the process easier.
The amount of planning involved with meal planning is significant, but fortunately, there is a way to make it infinitely easier—meal planning software and apps. I’ve taken the guesswork out of selecting the best ones for Paleo meal planning by creating this list.
AnyList collects and organizes recipes and adds them to a meal plan calendar. It then generates a grocery shopping list that you can easily edit and share with friends and family.
In addition to creating weekly meal plans, Cook Smarts also offers helpful cooking guides, infographics, and online cooking sessions.
eMeals lets you choose from a variety of different meal plans (including a Paleo plan, of course). Each meal plan includes recipes with main and side dishes, a shopping list, and step-by-step instructions.
Mealime produces weekly meal plans with over 200 personalization options.
The Keto Diet Tracker app is helpful for tracking net carbs and storing recipes for those following a keto diet.
The Nom Nom Paleo app has nearly 150 recipes, 2,000 step-by-step photos, and a Whole30-friendly monthlong meal plan and generates customizable shopping lists, all for a low cost.
This app includes only Paleo-friendly recipes—every single one is free of gluten, grains, legumes, sugar, soy, and corn. The app offers over 1,500 recipes, generates grocery lists, and lets you set your own food preferences and restrictions; for example, you can indicate if you’d like low-FODMAP, egg-free, or autoimmune protocol-friendly recipes.
The Paleo.io app answers a simple question: Is it Paleo? It helps users determine whether a given food is Paleo or not using a database of over 3,000 foods. It also includes hundreds of Paleo-approved recipes. This app is particularly helpful for those who are new to Paleo.
The Paprika app helps you organize recipes, make meal plans, and create grocery lists. Paprika’s built-in browser allows you to save recipes from anywhere on the internet so you can create your ideal meal plan.
Plan to Eat allows you to add your own recipes from anywhere on the internet into a recipe book. You can then drag and drop recipes into a calendar to plan out your meals for the week. The app also generates a grocery list for you based on your planned recipes.
RealPlans creates and organizes recipes, develops a weekly menu, and generates grocery lists so that you can get healthy, delicious food on the table. If you need to track your macros, Real Plans has you covered. A subscription will give you access to all the app’s meal plans (Classic, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Paleo, Keto, autoimmune protocol, and more) and over 1,500 recipes. You can add on recipes from well-known food bloggers for an additional fee.
Yummly takes a cue from Instagram, allowing you to browse through a photo gallery of recipes and save them to your own digital cookbook. Yummly also uses a proprietary program called Food Genome and a patent-pending technology called Food Intelligence to recommend recipes to users based on their allergies, tastes, and more.
You’ve cleaned out your kitchen, restocked it with healthy foods, and created a meal plan—now it’s time to start cooking! Here are a few simple strategies that will make it easier for you to follow through on your commitment to stick with Paleo.
For many people, Sundays work best. You may also want to consider doing your shopping and main meal prep session on a Sunday and a second, smaller meal prep session mid-week to keep your fridge stocked with fresh options. Use a list when grocery shopping and check off items as you add them to your cart.
Organizing the recipes you intend to use in meal prepping will save you time in the kitchen. The meal prep apps I mentioned above make organizing your recipes easy, but you may also want to keep a few cookbooks in your house and print out recipes from blogs and websites and collect them in a binder. Find 15 to 20 recipes that you really enjoy and rotate them throughout the weeks (and check out some of my favorite Paleo-friendly recipes).
You don’t need to cook an elaborate meal to satisfy your nutritional needs and appetite! Uncomplicated meals should be a staple in your weekly meal plans. For example, a high-quality protein source; steamed or roasted veggies with salt, pepper, and some healthy fat; and a sweet potato can make for a wholly satisfying and effortless meal.
Don’t be afraid of leftovers! Eating leftovers is an easy way to cut down on meal prep and prevents food waste. Label and date leftovers so you keep track of what’s in your fridge and freezer. And speaking of the freezer, use it! When you batch cook (see next item), you’ll have extras that you can stash away for later.
Batch cooking, including doubling and tripling your favorite recipes, is a critical component of food prepping and can be applied toward many types of foods. For instance, bake several batches of egg muffins at a time to have around for breakfasts or roast a bunch of sweet potatoes to use as sides throughout the week.
Some foods are more suitable for meal prepping than others; for example, roasted sweet potatoes hold up well to reheating, whereas pre-dressed salads quickly wilt in the refrigerator. In this section, I’ve outlined some of the best foods to include in your meal prepping process.
Now that you know the basics of meal prepping, you’re well on your way towards saving time in the kitchen and eating well.
Shopping Paleo can be expensive if you don’t know how to grocery shop to your advantage. With the tips I’ve outlined here, you can successfully shop Paleo on a budget while still filling your cart with high-quality, nutrient-dense foods.
Buy conventional instead of organic (for some produce). Organic produce is ideal because it reduces our exposure to harmful pesticides and herbicides. However, costs can really add up when buying nothing but organic foods. If this is a problem for you, check out the Environmental Working Group’s Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists to determine which conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are lowest in pesticides and thus safe to buy conventional rather than organic.
Whether you buy organic or conventional produce, thoroughly wash your produce before eating. Almost no food is completely free of pesticides. The most effective way to remove pesticides from produce is by washing produce in a baking soda bath. (4) To wash vegetables, fill a large bowl with water and add a teaspoon of baking soda. Add the veggies and soak for 10 to 15 minutes. Scrub with a scrub brush and then rinse under clean water. For leafy greens, soak in a baking soda bath for a minute, thoroughly rinse, and then spin dry in a salad spinner. Wash smooth-skinned fruits (like apples and nectarines) in a baking soda bath like you would for veggies.
Here are some more money-saving tips:
Contrary to popular belief, Whole Foods is not the only place you can buy healthy food! All the stores listed here have excellent selections of healthy, Paleo-friendly foods. Even your local grocery store is likely to have some options.
Don’t forget about your local farmers market! Farmers markets offer fresh produce, meat, and (depending on where you live) seafood at lower prices than most grocery stores. You might also want to investigate a CSA—community supported agriculture—in your area from which you can purchase a subscription to locally raised foods including produce and meat, delivered weekly or monthly.
Healthy grocery shopping can now be done online as well as in person. The following online grocery stores offer organic, healthy options and deliver right to your door:
Shopping seasonally is a great way to tune in with your local food system and save money. Check out the Seasonal Food Guide to find out what produce is in season near you.
If you are really tight on time but still committed to eating healthy meals, you may want to consider a Paleo “real food” meal delivery service. There are countless options out there, but I’ve curated the very best in this list.
Beetnik Foods meals are certified Paleo friendly, delivered nationwide, and also available in select health food and grocery stores.
ButcherBox delivers 100 percent grass-fed and grass-finished beef, heritage breed pork, and free-range, organic chicken. That can help if you’re short on time or if you’re struggling to find a local provider of grass-fed meat.
Caveman Chefs offers both meal delivery services and catering. It is based in Colorado but ships nationwide. Choose from meals that are Whole30 approved, autoimmune protocol, low FODMAP, and ketogenic.
Factor 75 meals are premade, 100 percent organic, and free of hormones, GMOs, and antibiotics. Choose from bundles of four, six, eight, 12, or 18 meals.
Green Chef provides you with prepped ingredients to cook three two-person Paleo dinners (or two four-person dinners on the family plan) each week. All recipes are organic and gluten-free, feature protein and fresh veggies, and contain zero grains or dairy.
Kettlebell Kitchen meals are free of artificial ingredients, preservatives, gluten, dairy, soy, corn, industrial vegetable oils, and refined sugar. Some of the meals contain non-Paleo ingredients that are tolerated by many people, including white rice, lentils, and gluten-free oats.
Paleo On The Go operates out of a completely gluten-free kitchen and specializes in Paleo and autoimmune protocol-friendly frozen premade meals that can be delivered nationwide. You can purchase meals individually or in bundles.
Paleo Power Meals offers premade meals with generous portions that pack a large amount of protein.
Pete’s Paleo offers seasonally inspired, farm-fresh prepared Paleo meals. Order bundles of five, 10, 14, or 20 meals in vacuum-sealed packages from anywhere in the United States.
Sunbasket allows you to select three two- or four-person meal kits per week without gluten, grains, soy, corn, added sugar, or dairy. The ingredients and recipes are delivered fresh so you can cook great meals without any planning or shopping.
The Good Kitchen sources organic produce almost exclusively from local farms in North Carolina (where its operation is based) and delivers its refrigerated and frozen meals nationwide.
Trifecta Nutrition provides ready-to-eat dinners and lunches that are non-GMO, 100 percent organic, and free of sugar, grains, gluten, dairy, and soy. You can also upgrade to add breakfasts and additional entrées or choose build-your-own meals.
TrueFare uses the highest-quality ingredients in their meals, including organic produce, grass-fed beef, heritage pork, and organic or free-range poultry. They offer Paleo-, keto-, autoimmune protocol-, and Whole30-friendly meal plans.
To successfully meal prep, you’ll need to stock your kitchen with some essential tools. This includes basic tools that everyone should have in their kitchen, Paleo-specific items, cookware and bakeware, and maybe some “nice to have” extras for when you decide to get creative with cooking.
For drinking and cooking water, I recommend investing in a high-quality water filter. Berkey water filtration systems sit conveniently on your countertop and remove viruses, pathogenic bacteria, cysts, and parasites to undetectable levels. They also reduce heavy metals without eliminating beneficial minerals. Additional white filters can be added to remove fluoride. If you want to filter your home’s entire water supply, you may want to consider a reverse osmosis filter instead.
Once you’ve prepped your meals, you’ll need containers for storing everything. Since plastic containers contain chemicals that are known endocrine disruptors, I prefer people use glass storage dishes with BPA-free lids.
For wrapping up foods, use unbleached parchment paper or beeswax-coated reusable food wrap (such as Bee’s Wrap) instead of conventional plastic wrap, which may leach endocrine disrupting chemicals into your food. (5) Finally, try reusable silicone storage bags (such as Stasher bags) instead of plastic freezer/storage bags, which may also contain endocrine-disrupting plasticizers.
Now I’d like to hear from you. Do you practice food prepping? If not, do you think you’ll try the food-prepping strategies I’ve outlined in this article? Let me know in the comments below.
The post Meal Prep: Your Best Tool for Healthy Eating appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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