Full Fat, Full Flavor

If you know me, you know that I like to workout pretty regularly but I'm not a fitness buff or anything. But I have learned a few things in my reading on health and nutrition, as well as by personal experience, and I wanted to bust a few myths. Myth #1: Exercise is a good weight loss tool. I used to think this was true, even though I never used exercise as such. However, there is an excellent chapter in Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It  by Gary Taubes on this very subject. The whole calories in calories out hypothesis is totally flawed, Taubes explains, because weight maintenance has more to do with the hormone insulin and its fat-storing effects. It may be true that you can tone your muscles and look more fit by working out regularly, but it does not actually allow you to lose much, if any, fat. Along with the physiological facts about working out and weight management, I think it really messes with people psychologically to think this way. If you feel like you have to w

I haven't come up with any new recipes lately, but I've come up with some meal ideas and I thought it might be helpful to show what a full day of eating keto (low carb high fat) looks like. A lot of people, when they hear that I eat low carb, ask me "What do you eat then?" I explained this in general terms in a previous post, but now I'm sharing some visuals and meal descriptions for you all. I could never go on a diet and eat plain grilled chicken breast, or egg whites and spinach. I add fat to everything, eat the whole egg, and my veggie of choice is actually broccoli, although spinach is good too. The keto lifestyle can be full of delicious meals, although it does take a little creativity at first. Hopefully I can give you some ideas with this post. Breakfast: cheesy scrambled eggs topped with a pesto-ricotta cheese mixture (no, I'm not one of those dairy-free keto people), bacon, broccoli with butter, and coffee with a splash of heavy whipping cream.

I recently got Leanne Vogel's new book The Keto Diet , and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to improve health issues or their relationship with food, while reaching and maintaining a healthy weight.  I wrote a little bit about keto in a previous post, but this book will give you a lot more details and help you find the keto profile that works for you and your specific health concerns. Although I have been eating keto for over a year with great success in improving my health, I like to get new ideas and motivation (and recipes!), and I've enjoyed Leanne's YouTube videos and podcasts over the past several months. I was super excited when this book came out and it has lived up to my expectations. This book is probably the best resource for how to do this way of eating that I have read yet! I've read other books to understand the science behind keto, but Leanne makes it so practical. I love how she lays out different eating profiles for people with di