Paleo can make you fat -- Muffin in disguise

Yes, it's true. Paleo eating can make you fat. That's a pretty bold statement, you say? Yes, I would agree. But alas my friends, it is true.

It's not what we eat. It's not the lean meats, veggies, nuts and seeds and fruit. It's not the prescribed exercise that goes along with it. If we examine the way the caveman ate, there is virtually no way he could have gotten fat. It's how we eat today. What has happened is that we have taken modern eating into consideration and thrown portion size out the window. There is a misnomer that goes along with "unweighed and unmeasured" paleo eating. And that is the idea that we can eat all day long like gluttons and we will come out on the other side unscathed.

I will concede to the fact that it is very hard to overeat protein. It's even hard to overeat vegetables. It's a little easier to overeat fruit and incredibly easy to overeat nuts and dried fruit. Now try this one on for size...

I just made the most delicious muffins on the planet. They come from a website called www.paleoplan.com. This website is actually genius. They figure all of it out for you for a fee. There are preplanned menus, shopping lists, recipes, you name it, it's in there. What a great idea! I can think of nothing easier in the world than logging on and pressing a button and having my meals for an entire week or more planned complete with shopping list. I don't know how any of the other meals taste, but these muffins are pure heaven.

So let's examine the ingredients of said muffins. There's almond flour, bananas, dates, coconut oil, walnuts, spices, eggs, carrot, etc. All the ingredients qualify as paleo. All of the ingredients are healthy and nutritious. There's another common denominator here: All of the ingredients (except the carrot) are highly caloric. I don't know how many actual calories these muffins have in them but I can imagine it's off the charts. And then it gets even better. I dare you to make these and then just eat one. It's impossible. They are so good they take your breath away at first bite. I have to admit, I knew this going in because I had a bite of my friend Marc's at sectionals and they have been on my mind ever since. I broke down and made them this morning. I inhaled two of them in less than 90 seconds. When I get the courage to re-enter the kitchen I'm going to bag them up and bury them in the backyard. Talk about dangerous!

So what's my point in all this? Just because something is made with paleo ingredients and it beats it's conventional counterpart (the mega-muffin or bagel) in nutrition and quality does not give us the right to eat it with abandon. We have to use common sense and know our calorie contents.

A long while back I posted about Taco Bell and how they are duping us into believing you can have a lean body by eating their "diet" menu. The girl on the commercial had cut her calories down to 1200 per day. My argument was that anyone could loose weight on that little amount of calories (but, ooohhhh the rebound. Get ready to gain it all back plus some). The inverse is true of paleo eating. If we don't stay conscious while we are shoveling food in, even if it is paleo, we will gain weight.

So here is my plea. To be successful on paleo, you don't have to weigh and measure. But you DO have to be conscious. Just because the ingredients are paleo does not give us the right to eat unlimited quantities of food. If you want to make these muffins, go for it. Like I said, they are divine. But have one as an occasional treat. Try to pair it with some protein. I guarantee if you eat these day after day, they will blunt your results.

That's my rant for the day! Now, off to CrossFit

Breakfast, Snacks, and an Ode to my Husband

Breakfast and snacks are a really important during the day. Often times I hear people tell me that they love eating paleo but breakfast and snacks seem to stump them. Well, I am here to save the day! Let's tackle breakfast first.

When eating paleo you can no longer think of breakfast as pancakes, oatmeal, cereal or any other super carby, super starchy mess. You must twist your thought process a little. Most of us grew up on a pop-tart (is that even food?) or sweet roll for breakfast... or cereal (which is the same thing as a sweet roll just in a different presentation). To accomplish the paleo breakfast shift, you should start thinking "protein" in the morning. It won't look like breakfast food most of the time and it might seem a little strange but your body will thank you. You will have more mental clarity and energy and you won't be starving two hours later from the insulin spike and subsequent drop after your nasty, hydrogenated pop tart.

Trade in your breakfast cereal for scrambled eggs, nitrate free bacon, nitrate free sausage, omelets with veggies, omelets with meat, left over dinner from the night before, fruit, a protein shake (egg protein), etc. Make a big pot of meatballs and have those! It doesn't have to resemble bread to be breakfast. Come on people! Think outside the box!

Did you know that most people eat the same 10 items over and over again. With that said, take five minutes and make a list of 10 things you can eat for breakfast. Now, rotate them into your week. It only takes a moment and if you are a little bit organized you can have a tasty breakfast before you leave the house. Do not leave the house with only a cup of coffee! You are contributing to a weak and sick body. Our goal in paleo eating is not only to be smokin' hot in our bikini... there's more? Yes, it's to be HEALTHY. And how healthy is it to just drink coffee.

Now let's talk about snacks. Snacks are important in the day. I usually eat two or three snacks. Take snacks with you. The last thing in the world you want is to be shopping at Costco and all of a sudden be overcome with hunger. If that happens you and your overwhelmingly huge shopping cart will make a B line to the pizza counter like it's being pulled into the "I want a huge ass with a side of heart disease" tractor beam. If you have a snack with you, you can whip it out and save your ass... literally.

So what's for snack? How about an apple with a tablespoon of almond butter and a little beef jerky. How about some nuts and a little dried fruit. We eat natural meat sticks from http://www.grasslandbeef.com/ and LOVE them. We also like celery with olive tampendade. You just need a little something to take the edge off. It's also good to make your snack easy and portable. Just think a couple of bites of protein and a little fat with a piece of fruit. There you have it. The picture above is my home made paleo kit. It has almonds, cashews (I know... some say you can't have those. I say ppphhhhtttt!), macadamia nuts, dried blueberries, and dried cranberries. My protein is in the form of the meat stick mentioned above and I eat this every day. No, I don't get tired of it, but thanks for asking.

And finally, hubby left for his sales meeting tonight. I will have six long and lonely days ahead of me. It's times like these that I realize how truly blessed I am. We operate like a well oiled machine always anticipating each other's needs. I shudder to think what would happen if we didn't. Well, for one the little lunatics would be running the asylum. Speaking of which, they turned two today. Our little babies... They gave me the present today, though. I walked in the house to find one twin pasted to the bay window like Spider Man trying to get a glimpse of a dump truck and the other standing in the middle of the kitchen table. I miss you already honey. Come home soon.

Adios Taco Bell

Does anyone else but me feel totally flabbergasted by Taco Bell's new "Diet" menu? Have you seen the commercial? I am almost speechless. I did say... almost.







Let us examine just one of the new "diet" menu items. Hmmm... How about the Fresco Chicken Burrito Supreme. First of all, anything with the word "supreme" in it that comes from a fast food restaurant should have a warning label attached to it. Something liken to, "This product has been known to cause heart disease, cancer, stroke, IBS, gout, diarrhea, constipation, hemorrhoids, high blood pressure... oops, we ran out of room on the label". They should add, "Not for human consumption".







Wanna take a stab at how much sodium the Fresco Chicken Burrito Supreme contains? Give up? That would be 1410mg. 1410mg in one sitting! That's enough for an internal pickling.







The girl in the commercial is attractive and happy (of course she is, she just landed a paycheck) and slender to boot. I would challenge any one of us to look less than amazing if we had an entire crew of people to give us just the right lighting, make up, swimsuit, hair style, etc. Let's not forget about digital enhancement, spray tan, dehydration and airbrushed abs. It's Hollywood movie magic at work to entice you to "run for the border".







Not to mention the girl in the commercial cut her calories to 1200 per day and I'm sure did some kind of endless cardio or jazzercize at the gym.







Anyone can loose weight on 1200 calories per day, Fresco Chicken Burrito Supreme or not. If I put 1200 calories of ice cream and Snickers in my body per day, I would loose weight(and be hungry). If I put 1200 calories of Big Macs into my body per day, I would loose weight (and be hungry). I know that I personally need about 2500 calories per day to maintain my muscle mass and weight. So by eating 1200 calories I am creating a deficit. That is the calories in, calories out theory and it works. Temporarily, anyway until your insulin level is so out of control and you are so overcome with hunger that you eat the side of a building with ketchup and gain all the weight back in two days flat plus more.







What we are missing here when we are "all about low calories" and not about quality nutrition is that we are creating a weak and sick body. We are setting ourselves up for disease and a retirement filled with bypass surgery. Why are we allowing places like Taco Bell to dupe us into thinking we can eat this crummy food and be okay? In the end it's the surgeons who will open the length of our legs to harvest a vein, then crack open our chests and sew this vein to our hearts in several places so our hearts do not die. And Taco Bell will just keep going...







"Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food" - Hippocrates







I think 'ol Hip would be turning over in his grave if he knew about the new Taco Bell, which by the way, is the same as the old Taco Bell, minus the cheese and sour cream.







Don't let them fool you into thinking that their sodium laden, lard infested, white flour, low quality chicken burrito is healthy by simply repackaging an old product and attaching the word "diet" to it. Diet does not equal healthy.







Next time you are starving and you need to drive thru, don't do it! Instead, drive UP to the grocery store and park. Get out and WALK into the market. Go to the deli counter and get some lunch meat, a little side salad and some fruit. Grab a water. There, wasn't that easy.

Know Thine Enemy: Grain Fed Beef

I will start by telling you that I am not a scientist or a doctor or a nutritionist. I don't have countless degrees behind my name that make me into something of an authority. But what I will tell you is that I have done my due diligence and I believe what I am about to tell you all the way down to my toes.





My interest in proper eating started when I worked in the hospital , as an RN on the Renal (kidney) floor. I saw countless patients come and go for their dialysis, for their kidney transplants, and finally into hospice where they would spend their last days. The majority of patients on that floor were there because of advanced diabetes. Many if not most of those patient's diagnosis were self-inflicted.





If you only get one thing from this blog please get this: Treat your body right. Many of us would never dream of putting 87 octane in our sports car. We spend so much time picking out the biggest, flattest screen TV that we can fit into our home. Our soaps are perfumy, our nails are polished, our shoes are Prada (well, not mine... but you get my drift) and yet we Drive thru those nasty golden arches and order a load of crap combo with a side of heart disease and a giant cup of tooth decay to boot. Aren't you more important than your television? It's bowl season... don't answer that.





So now that I have ranted for a while let me get to one point that people don't think about. One rather large step you can take to becoming more healthy besides unhanding the breadsticks is to change the type of meat you are eating. Red meat is NOT unhealthy. I know we have been molded and shaped and hypnotised into thinking that it is. Here's the caveat. It must be 100% GRASS FED beef. Do not eat grain fed beef. It's not worth it. Marbling is the enemy, people.





Cows are not designed to live in a stall where they can not turn around. Their diet is not meant to be grain pellets loaded with pesticides. They shouldn't have to be taking antibiotics and hormones and just lay there mindlessly getting as fat as they can in as little time as possible. All of those nasty, unhealthy things go right into their fatty, flabby bodies and thus, into ours as well.





100% grass fed beef is nutritious. It has the ideal Omega 6:3 ratio of 2:1. That is the same as a piece of fish but minus the mercury. 100% grass fed beef has 1/3 less calories than grain fed beef. It also contains four times more CLA. What is CLA you ask? CLA is a proven cancer fighter. It helps to maintain lean body mass, prevent arteriosclerosis and slows or halts the onset of diabetes. Sounds pretty good to me!





Take some time and do a little research yourself. Read up on your meat. Do you even know where it comes from or how it's processed? If you've seen me on FaceBook then you know that my family uses Wellness Meats to get our grass fed beef. I order it once every three months. Sprouts Market also has 100% grass fed beef although there quantities are limited. There are other places to get it as well. Just as a side note: I love Whole Foods Market with all my heart. However, there "grass fed beef" is GRAIN finished... no bueno. Grain fed cow = sick, unhappy, fat cow which in turn = sick, unhappy, fat you. Do not go for the head fake! Ask the butcher to provide proof that the beef is 100% grass fed.





I will get off my soap box now. For more reading go to: http://www.grasslandbeef.com/ http://www.robbwolf.com/ http://www.thepaleodiet.com/

To Hell and Back... What a Beautiful Journey

Most of you have seen this picture. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't proud of it. But what most of you don't know is the story behind the strength both mentally and physically. So sit back, grab a snack and get to know me just a little better.

As a child and teenager I was an athlete. I competed in gymnastic and diving at a high level. My sister would pick me up after school in Palos Verdes and drive me several days a week to Mission Viejo so I could dive on the same team as Greg Louganis. I was good... he was mind blowingly awesome. The Tiger Woods (ehem...) of the diving world. It was an amazing time and an amazing experience.

At 16 years old, while diving my heart out, I discovered boys... or one boy I should say. All it took was one and I was hooked. Nothing could have stopped me from being near him; not a scholarship for diving, not an opportunity to see the world, not a chance to figure out who I was or what I wanted from life. The next two years of my life were a whirl wind and I woke up one day (or so it seemed like that) a married woman with a child on the way at the ripe old age of 18.

What happened after that are details that are painful and blurred. I found myself lost. I was a child in an adult world; in over my head. I tried to fake my way through the best that I knew how. The fact of the matter was that I withdrew from life and became overwhelmingly depressed. I turned to drugs. Not the kind of drugs you are thinking of. My drug of choice was pizza, prime rib, french fries and candy bars. I ate my way up to 212 pounds. I was never more miserable. After my beautiful daughter was born I thought the weight would just come off. After all, it's just baby weight, right? Three months later I had lost 14 pounds. And a few weeks after that I settled into being heavy. The only thing that I will say about my ex-husband is that he was cruel enough to tell me how disgusting he thought I was one night while I enjoyed my third helping of chicken casserole. I can remember the exact details. I remember what I was wearing, where I was standing and the look on his face as he delivered the cutting remarks. I thought I would crumble from humiliation at that precise moment; but I didn't. Instead, I got pissed. Pissed at him for being so mean and pissed at myself for allowing another human being to strip me of my self-esteem and send me reeling into a bottomless pit where the only comfort I could get was from food. My life was about to change.

I used that anger to fight my way out of misery. I was determined to take control of my life again. I started a diet and joined the gym. Everyday I would take my little baby girl to the gym with me while I road countless hours on the stair master (It was 1989... you get my drift).

It took me 15 months but I lost every pound and felt very vindicated. I was proud of myself for the first time in a long time. I thought that I had won the fight but little did I know that strength builds on itself for a reason. In a few years I would be faced with a force so strong it would take me to the edge of my life. That force was cancer.

In 1999 I was diagnosed with female cancer. I was very weak and sick. I went through surgery, medications, and a very long recovery. I remember being so weak that I couldn't walk to the end of the driveway and back. My body was emaciated. I had to fight with everything I had this time. After all, I now had two precious daughters to care for. To this day I don't really understand why I won the battle and others do not. All I knew is that there is a plan for everyone. I needed to find out what my plan was.

Three months after my recovery I ended my marriage... badly. Details are not important, just know that I would continue my fight to raise my daughters the best way I knew how. I spent the next 5 years single. I took the time to figure out who I was and what I wanted from life. I could feel something shift in me. It was a need to reach out to people, to inspire them; to comfort them. To go beyond myself and my needs and serve others. There is a saying that goes something like: If you want to help yourself, help others first. This was the beginning of a beautiful awakening in my life.

In December of 2004, I met my husband who is my hero and the love of my life. We had our twin boys in January of 2008 with much help from modern medicine and one sweet woman willing to give up her body, endure endless discomfort and carry our twins for 37 long weeks. Aside from the usual sleep deprivation and newborn challenges times two, our lives were perfect for 18 beautiful months. We were in heaven.

Four months ago we learned that one of our sons has Autism. I say he "has Autism" and not "he is Autistic" because Autism does not define who he is. It is a tiny part of a beautiful boy full of love, excitement and giggles.

I firmly believe had it not been for the challenging path my life has taken, I would not be prepared to fight an epic battle. This time for our son. I am loved and cherished by an incredible man that fights by my side every day. Together and with faith, I know we have the ability to help our son reach his full potential.

So why am I telling you all of this? I've taken a few trips to hell and back and I want you to know that no matter what your circumstances are you must have faith and keep fighting. What are your goals? Are you willing to fight for them? What do you want out of life? Are you willing to be dedicated enough to get it?

When I look at the picture at the start of this blog I don't just see a woman that has improved her physique through CrossFit. I see an incredibly strong woman on a journey called life that never stops believing and never gives up. I am here to remind you to treat your body with respect. Eat well, exercise hard, rest often. Every day you have on this Earth is precious. Fight your battles with everything that you have. Never forget to fight for others. Love like it is the most precious commodity in the world because... well... it is.