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What is health coaching? It’s a client-centered, growth-fostering, thought-provoking approach that helps clients achieve health and well-being. Find out more about what health coaching is and the four pillars at the heart of it.
The post What Is Health Coaching? The 4 Pillars That Define It appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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Microgreens are young vegetable or herb plants that are grown to approximately 1 to 3 inches tall. Microgreens are usually harvested seven to 21 days after germination, once the plant’s first ‘true leaves’ have emerged. They have an aromatic flavor and concentrated nutrient content and come in a variety of colors and textures. You’ll often […]
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Do you have a healthy, balanced relationship with technology? If you find yourself unable to focus throughout the day, a digital detox might be in order. Find out how to go off the grid.
The post How to Tell if It’s Time for a Digital Detox and How to Do It in 3 Steps appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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Even after publishing several books and hundreds of articles that draw upon the science of ketosis and low-carb living, I keep researching, thinking, revisiting, and discussing the underpinnings of ketosis. My writing partner, Brad Kearns, and I maintain a running dialogue on all things keto. The latest conversation revolved around two very common questions or “problems” that keep coming up in the ketogenic community: why am I getting low ketone readings?
It’s a fair question. Why do some people on a keto diet register high ketones while others eating the same way register low numbers?
I won’t offer definitive answers fit to etch into stone. I will offer my exploration of the research, some educated speculation, and actionable advice you can ruminate on. And by all means get back to me with your take on the questions and my explorations, please. Dialogue is essential to understanding.
The generally accepted range that indicates ketosis is 0.5-3 mmol/L. I hesitate to define a prescriptive range, though, because so many factors affect readings – what you ate for your most recent meal, how long ago you exercised, and even the instrument you used to test can affect readings.
There are several potential explanations for low ketone readings. Some are hypotheses, some are based on your individual biology. A few possible explanations for low ketone readings include:
Let’s dig deeper.
One theory is that some keto-adapted people are so efficient at producing and burning ketones that they don’t leave any extra to spill into the urine and breath. They make only as many as they can use and their cells gobble up almost every ketone they produce. Under this argument, low ketone numbers on a ketogenic diet are a reliable sign of full ketone adaptation.
This sounds plausible, but I haven’t seen any empirical evidence that it’s the case.
Another theory is that the keto-adapted have built so much fat-burning metabolic machinery in their muscles that they can burn free fatty acids directly and don’t require much additional fuel from ketones. They make enough ketones to fuel the brain, since our brain can’t run on fatty acids directly, but your muscles no longer require as many. Many people who have been in long term ketosis can get by quite nicely on 20-30 net grams of carbs a day and might only show .4 or .7 millimolar ketones on a blood test, but they have plenty of energy from burning free fatty acids and maintain muscle mass on relatively fewer calories than when they were dependent on carbs.
The evidence is inconclusive, but a few indications point to increased ability to extract energy directly from fat as a possibility.
Keto pioneers Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek found that keto dieters blew higher readings early on in the diet when they were still burning ketones in the muscle. As they grew adapted to free fatty acids as a source of fuel and produced ketones primarily for the brain, ketone levels dropped. It was totally normal. If anything, they were more fat- and keto-adapted at lower ketone readings.
Consider the energy requirements of the brain. Whether it’s running on glucose (most of the population) or mostly on ketones, the brain is a steady state organ that never spikes energy demand. It’s a slow-burn 24/7 at nearly the same output whether you are sleeping, exercising hard, or concentrating hard. While the brain has a substantial caloric requirement (at roughly 2% of our body weight, it uses 20% of our resting metabolic rate), you don’t need a ton of glucose or ketones at any one time to power your brain gracefully all day long. That’s why people can “get away” with lower ketone production and still reap the benefits we expect from eating this way.
There’s almost certainly a genetic component to ketone production, too. Take the Inuit, who were rarely in ketosis despite traditionally eating a very low-carb diet.1 It takes several days of deep fasting for them to produce measurable ketones. Yet, they are adept at burning free fatty acids, almost as if they “skip” keto-adaptation and proceed directly to burning fat. Other variants that affect ketone production have yet to be discovered, but they’re out there.
If you test your ketones before and after you exercise, you may be surprised to find that your numbers are quite different after you’ve worked out. Remember, ketones are an energy source, not a stamp of accomplishment. Ketones are consumed when there is an energy demand in your body. It doesn’t mean you messed up your diet. Quite the opposite – it simply means your body used the energy source available at the time. Once ketone bodies are in low supply, your body will burn fat to make more, and that’s a win.
A few of the previous theories assume that you develop an increased ability to burn fat after you have been in ketosis for a while. But there are people who, after being in ketosis for a long period of time, still get high ketone readings when they test. What gives?
A major factor not often mentioned in whether someone on a keto diet registers high or low ketones is overall calorie intake. How much food are you eating?
Ketones are generated when the amount of dietary fat available to be burned exceeds the supply of oxaloacetate (provided by protein or carbohydrates). It’s not that the body thinks, “This woman needs some ketones, stat.” It’s more like, “I’ve got too much acetyl-COA from all this fat, and I can’t find any oxaloacetate. Time to ask for ketones!” If you’re the type to use keto to justify chugging olive oil, you’ll generate lots of ketones simply because your fat intake is outpacing the supply of oxaloacetate. Keto athletes eating tons of calories will probably produce more ketones simply because they’re eating so much fat.
If you’ve attained “caloric efficiency” and are eating fewer calories overall, you’ll generate fewer ketones but still experience all of the benefits of being in ketosis.
Another factor is the use of exogenous ketones. Realistically, you could take your ketone readings, then take keto salts or keto esters, then take your readings again and see a bump. That is what they’re for.
Above all else, focus on how you feel.
If you’re experiencing the benefits of ketosis, there’s no need to fret over some numbers on a device. The numbers can’t negate your real world experience.
References
The post Why Am I Getting Low Ketone Readings on a Ketogenic Diet? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
At my house, dinner often looks like grass-fed rib eye, grilled to medium rare with salt and pepper, and broccoli roasted with avocado oil and cooked ‘til crispy. It’s satisfying, satiating, and metabolically in line with the way I like to eat.
Dinner probably looks fairly similar at your place too. Only while grilling up your perfect cut of steak, you might also be firing up a big pot of mac ‘n cheese or popping some dino nuggets and waffle fries into the oven for the picky eaters in your household. Especially if your kids are used to conventional, Standard American Diet type fare.
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This is a question I get a lot from my health coaching clients. And my answer typically sounds something like, “only if you want them to become part of the growing epidemic of folks struggling with obesity and type 2 diabetes2 before they even move out of the house.” I realize that sounds harsh, but honestly, you know all the fake ingredients, sugar, and additives that manufacturers put into overly processed packaged foods. You won’t eat it, so why the heck would you feed it to your kids? Okay, rant over.
Anatomically speaking, we all have the same taste buds. Unfortunately, if your kiddos have spent most of their days being spoon fed something that comes out of a brightly colored box, how easy is it going to be for them to choose different foods? Not very. It’s kind of like when you first started eating Primally. The cravings. The longing for your old friend, fast food. The preference for salty, sugary, and crunchy snacks. Then, little by little, you started to notice that when you ate better, you felt better. Same goes for your kids.
There have been a ton of studies on this topic, and you’ll be happy to know that the answer is a definitive YES— you can change a picky eater’s preferences.Research done by Yen Li Chuand Paul Veueglers from the University of Alberta3 showed that children who were involved with food prep were more likely to make healthy choices at mealtime.
In the study, one-third of the kids surveyed said they helped their mom and dad up to 3 times per week, while one-quarter of them helped about once a month, and 12.4% didn’t help at all.
While the frequency of involvement differed (3 times per week vs once a month), the result was the same. Kids who helped their parents in the kitchen were more interested in eating healthy foods like vegetables than their non-helping peers.The data also showed that kids who participated in meal prep were more confident about the importance of making healthier food choices for themselves.
Does that mean that once you start cooking together they’re going to be begging for an extra serving of kale salad before bed? No. But they might start asking for full fat yogurt instead of ice cream. Or enjoying roasted chicken instead of the processed nugget variety.
So, how do you do it? Check out these 9 strategies for turning a picky eater’s habits around. These are the same tips I use with my health coaching clients to make mealtime less stressful. Give them a try — I’m confident they’ll work for you too.
No one likes to be pressured into trying new things, especially if they’re someone who already has a preconceived aversion to it. It might be tempting to force-feed your family, after all you are the parent, but there’s a good chance it will backfire. Studies show that kids who have a history of being pressured to eat continued to dislike those foods long into adulthood.4 Just some food for thought…
You obviously don’t want to feed your kids when they’re not hungry, but waiting ‘til they’re starving, grumpy, and feeling the effects of a drastic blood sugar dip will make them less receptive to eating what’s on their plate. Time it right and you’ll be more apt to get picky eaters onboard with healthier choices.
While we all have the same taste buds, some people do have a heightened sensitivity to bitter and sour foods. This could be genetically based or due to years of eating a highly processed diet. Regardless, it’s important to understand that your kids might not jump at the chance to scarf down a plate of wild caught salmon and asparagus. At least not right away.
Studies show that you can trick pickier palates by pairing flavors they prefer with new ones. In one experiment, researchers gave kids sweetened vegetables a number of times. When asked to taste and rate veggies in their natural state afterward, they reported liking the unsweetened versions more than they did originally.5 Dips and sauces are a great way to combine an unfamiliar food with something kids know and love.
I’m assuming that you’re well-versed in the benefits of the Primal lifestyle, but if you’re doing more talking than walking, your kids could be getting mixed messages. Notice the foods you keep in the house and what your meals look like. Be a positive role model whenever and wherever you can.
It’s easy to go overboard in the all-non-Primal-foods-are-evil department, so you’ve decided every processed food is off-limits, you might want to back off a little. Make simple swaps like fresh fruit instead of juice or an occasional treat made with better-for-you ingredients.
There’s a correlation between the number of new foods you feed your family and your picky eater’s willingness to eat them, so keep at it. Repetition and continuing to reintroduce foods (without force or frustration) has been linked to an increased liking of those foods.
As I mentioned above, kids who help out in the kitchen have a greater interest in eating healthier foods. So, look through recipes together, chop veggies together, and have them set the table. Being a part of the prep process gets kids’ curiosities piqued, which makes them more interested in participating in the end result — eating dinner.
I’m not a fan of fussy meals anyway, so I always recommend keeping things simple regardless of who’s at the table. Remember that sometimes kids aren’t being picky, they just prefer simple and separate foods. Instead of serving up a complex flavor-filled recipe, keep it plain and simply prepared without a lot of sauces or seasonings.
The main idea here is to take the stress out of making healthy food choices for your family. That means stop forcing, worrying, controlling, restricting, or walking on eggshells around your kids. Make it less of a battle and more of a fun, engaging experience. After all, no one chooses to be a picky eater. They’re not trying to make dinnertime a daily struggle. You just have to use the right strategies. Keep in mind that your kids’ eating habits won’t change overnight, but they will change. Just remember these 9 tips:
References
The post How to Get a Picky Eater to Try New Foods appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
If you’re on a high-fat ketogenic diet and running on a fat-based metabolism, you need access to fat. Some of it comes from your own body, but not all. A good portion of your body’s fuel will come from dietary fat, or the fat you eat. Especially if you are eating more fat than you’re accustomed to, you need to be able to absorb and then digest the fat you eat and turn it into useable energy. If you aren’t digesting fats, you may be in for some discomfort.
What are the signs and symptoms of poor fat digestion?
Running a fat-based metabolism just doesn’t work if you can’t digest fats. Here’s what it looks and feels like:
What happens to fat—or anything, really—that goes down the “wrong pipe”? When you consume fat but aren’t able to effectively digest it, that fat has to go somewhere. That fat goes where it isn’t supposed to be, and sometimes that causes pain and pressure.
Some misbegotten fat loss plans involve the active inhibition of fat digestion, either by consuming artificial fat-like substances that feel and taste like fat without providing any calories or taking lipase inhibitors which deactivate the intestinal enzymes that digest and absorb dietary fat. In both cases, the fat or “fat” is excreted when you go to the bathroom. Yeah. That’s not a good look, but it is a sure sign that you aren’t digesting fats.
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Fat is buoyant. If your poop is festooned with the fat you ate but didn’t digest, it will float more readily.
Passive leakage into your underwear is another common sign you aren’t digesting your fat. One of the most infamous processed “food” disasters was a line of “WOW” branded snacks that contained an indigestible fat substitute, which caused people to leak stool without warning. Same mechanism.
Apologies for the visual, but there’s no easy way to say it. People with poor fat digestion will often produce tangible, lasting results when they fart.
Not absorbing or digesting dietary fat will reduce your calorie absorption, and it may very well cause weight loss. But if you don’t have weight to lose, or if the weight loss comes with unwanted side effects (one study found that Orlistat users indeed lost weight, but they also lost more lean mass), you may want to pay attention.
Trying to run on fat without actually being able to access dietary fat is a miserable exercise in futility. The boundless energy, the steady even keel, the ability to go for hours without eating or crashing—all the promises of fat-adaptation will elude you if you can’t digest the fat you eat.
Orlistat users are at an increased risk of oxalate-induced kidney damage.1 Normally, oxalates bind to calcium to form calcium oxalate, which we excrete in the stool. With impaired fat digestion, the undigested fat binds with calcium, leaving oxalate adrift and more readily absorbed and accumulated. Less lipase, less fat digestion, more oxalate accumulation, more kidney danger.
This isn’t an easy “sign” to watch for. You can’t really “feel” it. But if you were to go to a lab and get tested for vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, and vitamin A, having low levels despite a steady intake could indicate a problem with your fat digestion. Orlistat research confirms this.2
But it’s a real issue. You absorb fat-soluble vitamins alongside the dietary fat you eat. If you’re not absorbing the fat, you’re missing out on the nutrients. All those studies which find that eating fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin E and vitamin K2 alongside dietary fat improves nutrient bioavailability assumes that you’re able to digest the fat. If you can’t digest the fat very well, you’re missing out on the rest of the stuff you eat.
Not all of these are individual markers of poor fat digestion. It’s normal to have some floaty stool now and again. You aren’t always going to digest every bit of fat you consume. Everyone can name a time they felt bloated and had a stomach ache after eating. There are many other reasons why you could be losing weight without trying. But if they are co-incident, you might be dealing with poor fat digestion.
And you should probably do something about it.
Okay, so any, some, or all of those symptoms are signs of poor fat absorption and digestion. It’s always a good idea to rule out larger health problems with your doctor. Until then, what can you do about it?
Most fat digestion occurs in the GI tract, but it starts in the mouth with something called lingual lipase, the oral form of the major fat-digesting enzyme. To produce lingual lipase, however, you have to chew. The simple presence of fat in the mouth isn’t enough—you have to get those teeth and that tongue going. In one study, eating almonds and coconut triggered the release of lingual lipase, while eating almond butter (the same amount of fat) did not.3 The only difference was chewing. Chew more to give your digestion a head start and improve your fat absorption, even if the food you’re eating doesn’t seem to require chewing. Do your best.
The primary role of the gall bladder is to collect bile from the liver, concentrate it into potent super-bile (my term), and release the concentrated bile to break up incoming dietary fat into smaller molecules that lipase (see above) can attack and digest.
If you gall bladder isn’t working properly, you still have bile—as that’s produced in the liver—but it’s not the concentrated stuff that’s really good at breaking up fat. You have “lesser” bile, bile that isn’t as strong or effective. Your dietary fat tolerance will drop unless you fix the gall bladder issue.
The gut is linked to just about everything in the body, and fat digestion is no exception. If you have an excessive amount of bacteria in your small intestine (remember, the bulk of your bacteria should reside in the colon), bile doesn’t work right. The bacteria start breaking it down, which inhibits the bile’s ability to break down the fats into the micelles that your lipase can digest.
I recently wrote a guide to fixing your gut health. Read that and employ some or all of the recommendations if they apply.
In studies where subjects have trouble digesting fats, they have to take extra fat-soluble vitamins, including vitamin E, vitamin A, and vitamin D, to avoid deficiency. This is a safe bet for the duration of your problem. I’d even throw in some vitamin K2 just to be safe—it’s really important but doesn’t get enough attention in typical studies.
You can actually take exogenous lipase and bile supplements (like ox bile or bile salts). These aren’t as effective as the real thing (producing your own in-house), but they can give you a little help in that area.
If you have had your gall bladder removed, supplementing may be crucial to digesting fats. Run it by your doctor to see what he or she thinks.
Bitter flavors after a fat-rich meal enhance bile production.4 It doesn’t have to be some arcane bitter herb mix; even an espresso after a meal—that classic Italian custom—can improve fat digestion by increasing gastric acid production.5
Shorter chained fatty acids like MCT oil and coconut oil are literally shorter and easier to disentangle for digestion. They don’t require as much bile to break apart as longer chained fatty acids. They are easily digested, head straight to the liver for oxidation or ketone generation without dealing with the lymphatic system, and can be utilized by cells for energy without the enzymatic processes needed to utilize longer chain fats.
I’m usually a proponent of listening to your body to tell you when you’re thirsty. “Drink when thirst ensures” works pretty well. But, since about 97% of bile is pure, unadulterated water, and one “silent” cause of fat malabsorption and trouble digesting fats is poor hydration status, this is something to consider. If you don’t have enough water, your bile production, texture, and function will suffer. It’ll be thick and sludgy, no good at all.
Drinking some water (perhaps with electrolytes) is an easy thing to try and it might actually be a missing piece.
Taurine is a conditionally-essential amino acid. We make it, just not enough. One of the essential roles it plays is as substrate for bile production. Without adequate taurine levels, bile production—and, thus, fat digestion—suffers.6 Luckily, it’s an easy fix. Take a taurine supplement or eat more meat, especially hearts. Chicken, beef, lamb, turkey hearts are all great sources of taurine.
There you have it, folks. 9 signs and symptoms of poor fat digestion and 9 potential solutions to address the issue.
Do you have any problems digesting fat? Have you tried any of these recommendations? Do you have any recommendations of your own that weren’t listed here?
The post 9 Signs You Aren’t Digesting Fats and What To Do About It appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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A while back, I developed an interest in the “archetypal postures” of ground-based sitting, squatting, and kneeling. My interest persisted, and I thought a full-on post about the potential benefits and logistics of floor sitting would be fun and helpful.
I’ve found that there aren’t very many studies examining the effects of floor sitting, kneeling, and squatting on health, posture, or pain. You’ve got the “stability ball literature” (long story short: sitting on a stability ball tends to “increase the level of discomfort”), 7but sitting on an inflated unstable sphere is more physiologically novel than a regular chair. I’m not sure there’s much benefit and it looks pretty silly. There’s also a brief study8 that showed sitting in a backless chair improved levels of consciousness in patients with prolonged consciousness disturbance. For the most part, though, it’s a pretty barren landscape of research.
I think that’s okay. I’m not entirely convinced we always need research to confirm what we already (should) implicitly know.
Sometimes hard data isn’t really needed, especially when you consider two unassailable facts about our relationship with the floor. First, individually, we all start out on the floor. As babies, we lie there, essentially kicking things off as eating, pooping sacks of wiggling, basically immobile flesh. Then, we graduate to flipping over onto our stomachs, lolling our heads around (once we develop sufficient neck strength), crawling toward vacant electrical sockets, hesitantly standing, and finally walking. It’s on the floor that we learn to move. We may not be doing terribly complex or impressive stuff down there, but that first year or two is incredibly formative for the rest of our movement lives. We’re building a foundation made primarily of contralateral crawling and “tummy time.” Graduating beyond the floor to full on bipedalism doesn’t mean we should totally ignore where we came from.
Second, chairs only recently became part of our lives. Folks as early as the ancient Egyptians had them, but they were a luxury item reserved for the upper classes. Your average Neolithic human sat on chests or benches until chairs became a mass-produced staple that everyone could afford. Earlier than that, for most of human history, formal-sitting furniture simply didn’t exist. Paleolithic posteriors surely rested upon rocks and logs and stumps when the opportunity arose, but those aren’t the same as having permanent fixtures that allow you to take a load off whenever you want. Human bodies were not designed with chairs in mind. We did do a lot of lounging around – I’m not arguing we never stopped moving or anything – but we did so on the ground, rather than on a bunch of folding chairs.
Sitting down in a chair does funny things to our bodies. It stretches out our glutes, making them inactive, loose, and weak. People by and large no longer know how to activate their butt muscles due to excessive amounts of chair sitting. Sitting in a chair also keeps the hip flexors in a short, tight, contracted position for extended amounts of time, which can inhibit full hip extension and lead to that hunched over position you often see older folks shuffling around with. And that’s not even mentioning the extensive (and growing) literature showing how sitting for too long increases mortality and degenerative disease, which I’ve covered in plenty of posts and Weekend Link Loves. This post isn’t really about that, anyway.
What might be most important, though, is what sitting in a chair doesn’t do. It doesn’t allow us to rest in the full squat position, an ability we’re born with but quickly forget how to do. It doesn’t let us do much of anything. Sitting becomes a totally passive act, where we’re slumped over, shoulders rounded, feet twisted up and resting on the chair legs, totally dependent on the structure of the chair to support our weight – rather than using our musculature and arranging our skeletal system in such a way that we support ourselves. Doesn’t it seem inconceivable that an animal – any animal – would evolve to require furniture in order to rest comfortably without incurring a disability?
That’s partly why it makes some sense to hang out on the floor more.
We need the “stress” of supporting our own body weight and making sure our structures are in alignment. Here are a few positions to try out:
Squats are the default resting position of humans. Kids can do this easily, but once they start going to school and sitting in a chair for six hours a day, they lose it. The goal here is to get your heels on the ground. Resting on the balls of your feet is easier, but it’s harder on your knees and thighs. The heels-down squat, which requires more flexibility but distributes the pressure across your hips, is far more sustainable.
Seiza is the formal way to sit in Japan, resting on the lower legs, butt on heels. Placing a small pillow or rolled up towel under your knees can make the transition easier, especially if you have a bad knee or two.
Like seiza, except one of your feet is on the ground, heel down, in front of you in a squat position. Like these guys.
For many people, this is the most comfortable, natural way to sit on the floor. You can place your feet flat against each other, cross at the ankles, or place your calves against each other. You can even go full lotus.
This is one my favorite ways to sit. From the basic crossed leg position, place one hand flat on the floor and lean on it. Bring the opposite leg up and place the foot flat on the floor. Your opposite leg will be in a squat position. Switch hands and legs if it gets uncomfortable.
Human limbs are funny, bendy things. We can contort ourselves into lots of positions, and as long as you’re on the floor, supporting your own weight and feel comfortable doing it, it’s difficult to hurt yourself. Our bodies are good at giving feedback before things go really wrong. If your arm starts to go numb or your toes get tingly, switch it up! Try coming up with some of your own variations for sitting on the ground and report back.
Spend at least an hour a day sitting on the ground and another fifteen minutes practicing different ways to move between positions and another fifteen practicing how to stand up and sit back down. Shoot for ten minutes of crawling, too. You can do most of these things while doing other things, like watching TV or reading or talking, so it’s not like you’re wasting time. My guess is that you’ll take to this like a fish to water.
The way we sit, and where we do it, changes the function of our bodies. It even alters the length of musculature.9 In countries where squatting and other forms of floor living are seamlessly weaved into everyday life, people still retain the mobility to do all that stuff into old age. I’ve got a buddy from Thailand who moved over to Hollywood as a teenager in the late sixties and still retains the ability to sit in a full squat, painlessly and effortlessly. This guy is an avid user of chairs and everything Western. He’s not a gymgoer at all, and he’s never even heard of a foam roller or Mobility WOD, but because he got the right floor living experience during the formative years, he can still squat and move around on the floor. Unfortunately, for many of us in Western countries who stopped floor living right around age four or five, we may never quite get there – but we can certainly do a lot better than we are now.
Now that you have some idea of what to do when you’re on the ground, I’d like you to spend the next week doing as much floor living as possible. I don’t expect you to ditch the office chair and roll around the ground while at work, but I do expect you to get in some quality floor time when you’re at home.
Let’s hear from you guys. How do you handle yourselves on the floor? What’s your favorite go-to position?
References
The post Floor Sitting: Do You Spend Enough Time on the Ground? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
With some states reopening businesses sooner than expected, now more than ever, protecting yourself from Covid-19 is crucial. That means maintaining social distancing, protecting yourself and others by wearing a mask, and practicing good social hygiene. Still, that may not be enough. Anywhere people gather will become a breeding ground for germs. If you’re serious […]
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
You’re stuck in the house and most businesses are closed.
Whelp, looks like it’s time to learn how to cook (apocalypse style)!
We’ve been teaching folks how to feed their family with whatever resources they may have available in our Nerd Fitness Prime livestreams.
If you’re just learning how to cook while the pandemic is erupting around you, you’re in the right place!
Here’s what we’ll cover in today’s guide:
Grab your apron, ready the fire extinguisher, and let’s do this.
The purpose of this section is given away in the title, but it’s worth exploring a bit.
With every recipe you try here, I want you to forgive yourself ahead of time if all doesn’t go according to plan.
If you burn an entire meal to a crisp, as long as no one actually gets hurt, it’s okay.
These are stressful times. If you’ve never had to cook before, and are just learning how, you’ll probably screw up a little.
That’s fine. Good even, because it’s how you improve your cooking skills.
Everyone filmed in front of you today has at some point thrown away food because it turned out inedible. It happens.
Teddy Roosevelt said it best: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Plus, with the food supply chain being thrown into chaos, you’ll likely be missing some key resources.
We’ll work around these issues together and do the best we can.
In this video that was live-streamed to Nerd Fitness Prime members, Coach Justin walks you through making a stir-fry.
Chicken stir-fry was one of the first meals I grew comfortable cooking, so it’s a great recipe to learn some basic chef skills.
As Justin discusses, pretty much anything can be used in your stir-fry, which is why it’s great when resources are scarce.
Normally, I cook mine with chicken, while Justin uses lamb in his meal. If you’re going the plant-based route, you could also use tofu for your protein source here.
Again, you have a lot of options for stir-fry!
If you need a quick lesson on the basics of cooking, start with our str-fry lesson.
You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers:
What cooking tools should you have stocked?
How about herbs and spices?
Do you need to worry about specific cooking oils?
In the lesson above, Coach Staci walks you through her exact pantry setup, so you’ll know how to build out your kitchen essentials.
You can also check out our extensive “Nerd Fitness Pantry” guide too!
If your Apocalypse Kitchen could use some inventory upgrades, give this class a watch.
Let’s be real here, cooking can be a pain.
Especially when you need to use multiple pots, pans, and strainers.
Truth be told, it doesn’t need to be that complicated.
In our video above, Coach Staci walks you through cooking an entire meal with one single baking sheet.
If you want to cook along with Coach Staci:
If you want to keep your Apocalypse Kitchen simple, learn to cook off one single sheet!
Continuing on with “cooking can be a pain,” let’s learn how to prepare some meals that don’t need to be cooked at all.
Coach Justin walks you through preparing:
With a few ingredients “pre-cooked” when purchased, you have some quick and easy meals with only a little assembly required.
If you don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, give this lesson a watch.
If you follow a plant-based diet, check out this discussion on vegetarian cooking made easy.
Coaches Kerry and Lauren discuss plant-based meal and snack ideas that take very little time to prepare but have a lot of flavors. Who doesn’t love lots of flavors?
Some highlights of their session:
If you want to learn how our two vegetarian coaches fuel themselves with plants, check out their wonderful discussion on how to become a “lazy vegetarian.”
Outside of the daily live streams we have with Nerd Fitness Prime, we have a ton of resources to help you level up your kitchen skills.
Let’s discuss some of the best:
#1) Our Guide to Healthy Eating. If you have no idea what a healthy meal even looks like, start here.
By the way, it looks something like this:
Our resource for healthy eating will walk you through Nutrition 101, by explaining different macronutrients, proper portion sizes, eating for weight loss, and much more.
We also include a ton of recipes for you to try out.
#2) A Step-By-Step Guide to Meal Planning and Prep. If you’re going to dirty up a bunch of dishes to cook a meal, you might as well cook meals for the entire week!
That way you only need a microwave going forward.
Coach Staci walks you through her Sunday evening meal prep ritual in this step-by-step guide.
#3) Batched Cooked Chicken for Lazy People. I’m lazy. Yet I need to eat every day.
Here’s my solution:
How lazy is my recipe? I don’t even use a knife or cutting board to make my chicken.
#4) 10 Minutes of Prep, 10 Amazing Meals. With less time than it takes to watch an episode of Rick and Morty, you can be staged to prepare 10 amazing meals.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all covered here, so jump in if you need some quick meal options.
#5) 5 Ways to Spice up Eggs and Bacon. Eggs are a great breakfast staple, as they have plenty of protein and healthy fat to help start your day.
However, they can start to get boring if they’re all your eating in the AM.
We have a solution!
Coach Staci walks you through her favorite ways to spice up eggs (and bacon) for breakfast.
It’s a stressful time in the world right now. Normal steps like “grabbing some food on the way back from work” might not be feasible anymore.
So I’m excited that you’re going to roll up your sleeves and give cooking a try.
As always…DON’T PANIC.
There are lots of unique techniques to cooking and a zillion different recipes found online. It can all be a little overwhelming.
My advice: pick a recipe and get going.
You’re not going to learn to cook by strictly reading articles online. Eventually, you’re going to have to head into the kitchen and get your hands dirty.
So go do it. Grab a recipe from this guide and give it a try. Don’t even worry about anyone actually eating it at first, just get accustomed to turning on your stove and using your knife.
You’ll get better at it as you go, I promise.
What recipe should you try?
They’ll all work, but give Staci’s “one cooking sheet meal” a whirl if you need a good place to start. You really only need some food, a knife, a baking sheet, and a bowl.
Just make sure you start. We’ll course-correct together as you get going.
If you want some more help, Nerd Fitness is here for you.
We have three options on how to continue with us. Pick the option that best aligns with your goals:
Option #1) Liked the videos we showed in today’s guide? Want to watch them live and get your questions answered? Join Nerd Fitness Prime!
Nerd Fitness Prime is our premium membership program that contains live-streamed workouts and cooking classes with NF Coaches, lessons on how to cook, healthy recipes, a supportive online community, group challenges, and much more!
Option #2) Our 1-on-1 Online Coaching program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.
All the coaches from our videos today are part of the program, and they’re ready to help you level up your kitchen skills, apocalypse or no apocalypse.
You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you:
Option #3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
Sign up in the box below to enlist and get our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, the Nerd Fitness Diet Cheat Sheet, and much more!
Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit
Alright, I want to hear from you and your experience with cooking during the apocalypse!
Are you a master of kitchen skills?
Just getting started since most businesses are closed?
Any simple recipes we missed?
Let me know in the comments!
-Steve
P.S. If you’re struggling to keep a normal routine with COVID-19 chaos erupting, check out How to Stay in Shape (Without Leaving the House).
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Photo Source: Potheads, Apocapella, We don’t need another hero portrait,
http://chriskresser.com/
COVID-19 has created a crisis for all of us, but we have the freedom to choose how we respond to it. In this episode of Revolution Health Radio, Dr. Rick Hanson returns to discuss three practical steps that will help you get through adversity while finding ways to experience joy and happiness.
The post RHR: Finding Happiness and Joy in Any Circumstances, with Dr. Rick Hanson appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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