More AWESOME recipes!

Although my Whole30 is officially over, that doesn't mean I will change my eating habits. I LOVE the foods I have been eating over the last 30 days and will continue eating the same way. I will add some
"paleofied" foods back into my diet, such as paleo muffins and paleo granola and other baked goods that I enjoy so much! I can't wait to share those recipes with everyone.

Stovetop Pork Carnitas

I'm so disappointed that I waited until the last week of my Whole30 to try the Citrus Stovetop Pork Carnitas from The Clothes Make the Girl.  You would think I have learned by now not to be intimidated by certain recipes and JUST GO FOR IT, but I still struggle with that from time to time.  I finally bit the bullet about a week ago and went shopping for some pork shoulder.  I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in the meat section of HEB, so I asked the butcher and he cut it for me right there!  It was so nice, because my 4 lbs. of pork was already cut into cubes and I didn't have to do any of that work myself.  I'm all about convenience, remember?  I did take the time to squeeze juice from a few lemons and limes, though, because I didn't want to take any chances with the concentrate that sits in a bottle on the shelf.

The prep for this recipe really was only a few minutes.  You just coat the meat with the spices by shaking it all together in a zip loc bag, pour it in your pot and cover with the lemon & lime juices + water.  Then it's hands off for a couple of hours!

Melissa was right - the recipe looks pretty much like "uninspired" soup in the beginning.  Be patient!  I promise it gets better.

The first time I made this recipe, I really let the meat crisp up on all sides before taking it out of the pot.

The next time, I removed it a little bit earlier for a little less "crunch" on the outside and the flavor was still amazing.  It's all about personal preference!

 
Slow Cooker Kahlua Pig 
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This recipe is one I didn't try for awhile because I didn't have Hawaiian sea salt and just assumed this was something you could only get if you lived in Hawaii (oops).  After talking to one of my friends who made this and RAVED about it, I did some quick searching and found Hawaiian sea salt on the internet - go figure!!  This was probably one of the easiest recipes I've ever made and was the fastest to prep.  Make sure you time it right, because it does cook for 16 hours in the crockpot, but it's oh-so-worth-it!

Make sure you follow the instructions on how much sea salt to use according to the weight of your pork.  You do NOT want too much salt!

Cook the pork in the crockpot with the fat side on top, but remove the fat as soon as it's done cooking.  This should be pretty easy to remove.

I like to go through the pork (after it cools) and shred it with my hands to remove as much fat as possible, but again that's personal preference.  Get ready to eat on this meat for a few days at every meal and for it to disappear fast!!

Broccoli Slaw

Broccoli slaw is a great fast and easy option to get more vegetables and eat along side any meal.  I played around with it a little bit and decided my favorite way to make it is sauteed in olive oil with garlic powder, minced onion, and a little coconut aminos (add a the very end).  You can get coconut aminos locally at Drug Emporium or buy online through Amazon.  It does NOT have a coconut flavor - it is very similar to soy sauce but is Whole30 approved!

Kids and the Whole30

I've had a lot of people ask questions about kids and the Whole30, or kids and nutrition in general, and there is so much research on this topic!  There are two key areas to consider when discussing kids and nutrition - the biology behind what our kids need to develop physically and cognitively as well as the behavioral aspect of getting kids to eat healthy foods.  Check out the following article (below) from Whole30 that introduces these concepts and continue to do your own research!  Every parent wants the best for their kiddos - take some time to educate yourself regarding what science and research say is the best when it comes to nourishing your children.  Knowledge is power!

Kids are people, too

Once children begin to wean from their “perfect food”, however, parents are faced with choosing foods for them.  Robb Wolf  has said, “Kids are just little people”, and we think so, too.  Since your kids are working so hard to grow into adults (though we can’t imagine why they all want to do that), they need plenty of calories to support growth, activity, and normal physical and cognitive development.  But eating well isn’t just about getting adequate calories (protein, fat, and carbohydrates) – otherwise, we could all thrive on nothing but McDonald’s cheeseburgers, fries and a Coke… or our Paleo bacon, bananas, and almond butter, for that matter.  No, there is far more to healthy eating than supplying adequate macronutrients – it’s the micronutrients that contribute to our health, and that of our children.

One significant reason that fresh, unprocessed foods like meat, vegetables, fruit and good fats are so healthy for us is that these foods supply liberal amounts of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals – the stuff that actually benefits your child’s health. Choosing foods that supply adequate macronutrients while being very nutrient-dense is the “best-case scenario” for growing kids, from toddlers to teenagers.  (Check this related Robb Wolf post for additional nutritional breakdowns.)  So much like we encourage our readers to Eat Real Food, we believe your kid’s food should also be Real Food.

Growing healthy kids

Your child’s diet should be comprised of nutrient-dense foods which are in harmony with our genetic heritage and require minimal processing to be eaten – things like beef, chicken, and fish; sweet potato, carrots, and spinach; blueberries, cantaloupe and plums; avocado, olives, and coconut milk.  Sound familiar?  It should!  As we’ve mentioned here once or twice, Eating Real Food confers a host of benefits on us adults, including improved performance, effortless weight management, and optimal long-term health, not to mention reducing systemic inflammation and your risk for a number of lifestyle related diseases and conditions.  And kids are just little people, right?  This same food – Real Food – promotes their healthy immune function, supports growth and activity, and contributes a wide variety of micronutrients that has been shown to decrease risk of (and improve) conditions such as asthma, allergies, ADD and various autoimmune diseases.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, much in the way foods like sugar, grains, legumes, or dairy negatively affect our health, they also negatively impact our children’s health – perhaps even more so, as their immature immune system and GI tract can be even more vulnerable than ours.  Even in the youngest of us, typical “kid food” like milk, yogurt, cereal and bread at worst promote systemic inflammation, create immune system dysfunction, increase the risk of diseases like type I diabetes.  At best, these foods comparatively lack the nutrient density that would significantly contribute to your child’s overall health.   (Yes, even milk, despite what your pediatrician may tell you.)

Food fights

Lots of parents we’ve talked to say, “But my kids don’t like vegetables…” or, “But my son loves Froot Loops.”  (This is where we often get in trouble, asking, “Um, does your toddler drive himself to the corner store for cereal?”)  Admittedly, we don’t know how difficult it is to try to take away a child’s Froot Loops – although we can imagine, knowing how hard it is for our adult Whole30 participants to change their eating habits.  But until your children are buying their own food with their own money, you as the parent are the single largest supplier of your child’s nutritional needs.  And we believe it’s just as critical to your child’s long-term success to feed them healthy food as it is to make sure they don’t drop out of school in 3rd grade.  Admittedly, getting kids to love Real Food is easier said than done, especially if they’re accustomed to sweeter, more processed foods on their plate.  But we think that there are few parental duties more noble than loving your children wholeheartedly, and feeding them as best as you can – even if you have to fight them on it, even if they go to bed hungry for a night or two, even if you have to resort to saying, “It’s for your own good.”

CLICK HERE for the entire series of articles on Kids and Nutrition from Whole30!

DAY 22 FOOD LOG:

Wake up/pre-camp - turkey meatballs, apples and almond butter

Meal 1 - shredded chicken (cooked in the crockpot with salsa), eggs, broccoli, and pico scrambled together, topped with fresh salsa

Meal 2 - smoked chicken,  roasted Brussels sprouts and bacon, turkey twice baked sweet potato

pre-workout - 1/2 Pecan Larabar

post-workout/Meal 3 -  smoked chicken salad with sun dried tomatoes, avocado, and balsamic vinegar, green beans

WATER ALL DAY, La Croix, and a few nuts & dried cranberries

Alcohol - What's the Big Deal?

The following information is courtesy of Whole30.com and It Starts with Food.

Remember those 4 Good Food Standards outlined in It Starts with Food?

1.  Promote a healthy psychological response - foods that do NOT promote a healthy psychological response light up pleasure, reward, and emotional pathways in the brain, offering super-normally stimulating flavors without providing the nutrition that nature intended.  These are foods-with-no-breaks, promoting over consumption and the inability to control your cravings, habits, and behaviors.

2 - Promote a healthy hormonal response - foods that do NOT promote a healthy hormonal response disrupt your normal hormonal balance, promoting leptin resistance, insulin resistance (and all of the negative downstream effects that follow), disrupting glucagon's energy-access function and elevating cortisol levels.

3 - Support a healthy gut - foods that do NOT support a healthy gut directly promote intestinal permeability, leading to a less-than-intact barrier that lets foreign substances get inside the body (where they do not belong).  Foods that fail this good food standard by default also fail the fourth.

4 - Support immune function and minimize inflammation - foods that do NOT support immune function and minimize inflammation by creating intestinal permeability (as mentioned above) or directly promoting chronic systemic inflammation force your immune system out of a healthy balance.  This can lead to the development of systemic inflammatory symptoms or auto-immune diseases and is a central risk factor for many lifestyle related diseases or conditions.

Guess what? . . .

ALCOHOL FAILS ALL 4 GOOD FOOD STANDARDS!!

1.  In terms of healthy psychological response, alcohol is addictive. It promotes the desire even in the face of negative consequences, tolerance to the effect of the substance, and withdrawal symptoms when use is reduced or stopped. Alcohol inhibits our inhibitory mechanisms. Which means that when you are under the influence, you are more likely to make bad decisions (with food.)  In addition, how many times have you "rewarded" yourself with an alcoholic drink or happy hour?

2.  From a hormonal perspective, alcohol consumption interferes with glucose function in the body and with the actions of regulatory hormones like insulin and glucagon. Even in well nourished people, alcohol can disturb blood sugar levels. Especially when combined with sugar, alcohol increases insulin secretion, which pulls too much blood sugar out of the blood stream, causing temporary hypoglycemia. Alcohol can impair glucagon's normal function, leaving your blood sugar levels too low for too long.

3. and 4.  Alcohol directly promotes intestinal permeability and overgrowth of gut bacteria, contributing to a leaky gut and all of he downstream inflammatory effects.  Both acute and chronic alcohol use impair cellular immunity, leaving your immune system even less prepared to deal with inflammatory consequences.  Alcohol is also pro-oxidative, meaning that it contributes to oxidation in the body: it reduces antioxidant levels by increasing free radicals, which contributes to chronic systemic inflammation.  

In short, alcohol has no redeeming health qualities. 

Is it realistic to think that you'll never drink any alcohol ever again?  Probably not; however, the above information is all about helping you to make informed and educated decisions about food.  Instead of justifying your choices with marketing pitches or telling yourself that because it's gluten-free, low-carb, or heart-healthy (antioxidants in wine, anyone?) it's a perfectly healthy choice, you'll be able to tell yourself "This (fill in the blank) is not making me healthier, but that's OK, because it's delicious/special/culturally-relevant/emotionally significant."  And when it comes to less-healthy foods, understand that the LESS you indulge in them, the healthier you'll be.  Where you draw that line is totally up to you.

A FEW TIPS:

- If you're out with a group people and don't want to explain why you aren't drinking or deal with all the questions/comments about your choices, order a club soda with a lemon or lime in a cocktail glass.  Does the trick every time!

- Plan your Whole30!  Look at your calendar.  If there is an event that you know will be VERY difficult to experience without drinking (a wedding, bachelor/bachelorette party, birthday, vacation, etc.) plan your Whole30 around this schedule.  If you can't find 30 days on your calendar free of these "special events," start getting into the mindset now that you will not be drinking or eating what you typically might during this time, and remember that ALCOHOL WILL STILL EXIST IN 30 DAYS!

- Accountability!  Plan to do your Whole30 with your spouse, significant other, co-worker, friends or a group who can help keep you accountable but also be there for company when it seems like everyone around you is drinking.  You may find pretty quickly that you love waking up well-rested Saturday morning and have more productive weekends than you ever thought possible!

DAY 19 FOOD LOG:

Pre Camp - Apples, almond butter, turkey meatball

Pre Workout - shredded chicken

Post Workout/Meal 1 - Shredded chicken, eggs, pico

Meal 2 - Citrus pork carnitas, roasted Brussels and bacon, sweet potato fries

Meal 3 - Italian sausage meatballs over roasted spaghetti squash and RAO's marinara, roasted green beans

WATER ALL DAY (and La Croix)

Cooking Right Along

I ate so many delicious meals last week that I decided to make a lot of the same things to eat over the next few days.  I added a couple of new recipes this week too, but there are some staples I just love to keep around!  If you're getting bored with any of your recipes or meals - get online!  Do a Google search, get on Pinterest, read blogs, click on the links on the right of my page . . . Whole30 recipes are everywhere!!


Cooking List
Chicken Salad
Spaghetti Squash & Meatballs
Twice Baked Turkey Sweet Potatoes
Bacon & Okra Pilau
Butternut Squash Purée
Stovetop Pork  Carnitas
Shredded Chicken Breasts (boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crockpot covered with a jar of Whole30 approved salsa.  Cook on low for 8 hours, then shred with a fork when done.  Perfect on salads, lettuce wraps, or with eggs and SO easy!)
Brussels & Bacon
Roasted Green Beans & Carrots

I took a picture of my grocer cart today so you all could see what it looks like.  Nothing packaged or processed - all real food!  HEB has 3x the points on fresh fruits and veggies right now so I'm really racking them up!

Shopping List
Red pepper flakes
Garlic salt
Chipotle chili powder
Ground ginger
Coriander
Spaghetti squash
Butternut squash
Chicken breast
Whole chickens
Eggs
Sweet potatoes
Ground turkey & ground beef
St. Louis style pork ribs
Cauliflower
Bell peppers
Tri-color peppers
Okra
Chicken stock
Onions
Apples
Coconut milk
Pork shoulder (I had them cut this for me at the counter)
Strawberries
Lemons
Limes
Salsa
Lettuce
Spinach
Green beans

My lunch today!  "deconstructed burger" - ground beef patty over spinach and arugula mix, topped with a fried egg, bacon (Whole30 approved!), avocado, sun dried tomato, and salsa

DAY 18 FOOD LOG:

Meal 1 - Omelet with sausage, broccoli, and pico, side of sweet potato fries

Meal 2 - "Deconstructed burger"- ground beef patty over spinach and arugula mix, topped with a fried egg, bacon, avocado slices, sun dried tomatoes, and salsa.

Meal 3 - Pork ribs, butternut squash puree, Brussels and bacon

Why Whole30? A Different Perspective

I met Melissa this summer on a girls'trip and we hit it off instantly.  She's so much fun, incredibly genuine, and serious about her own health.  As we started talking more and getting to know each other, the topic of the Whole30 came up (as it always does - because everyone seems to ask me at some point about my own diet and exercise).  Melissa seemed really interested right away and started her own Whole30 not long after we met!  I asked her to write a little about her experience to offer a different perspective . . .

My Why with Whole 30

I have always been an active person in life, especially in high school sports.  I could eat anything I wanted, drink all the sugary drinks in sight and never be affected.  Then college hit!  My mother wasn’t cooking all my meals, I worked in a restaurant where you could eat all the chips and salsa you wanted and I lived off a small income.  Therefore, drive-thru restaurants were visited frequently and I bought the cheapest food I could live off of at HEB.  My body was not a “bean pole” figure anymore and it discovered the dreaded muffin top!

Several years later is when I realized I had to join a gym, but my eating habits didn’t really change and I thought the cardio would be enough.  My experiences at the gym would be running on a treadmill, and then stopping at the first moment I lost my breath.  Then I’d hit the weight room with a few reps, pat myself on the back  and say, "good job."  My mind outweighed my matter! 

This past summer I was on a girl’s trip with some old and new friends.  This is where I met 2 girls who I noticed weren't eating all the junk food we were and drinking the lowest calorie adult beverage possible.  I wanted to know WHY!  After an in depth conversation about their Whole 30 experiences, I never thought it would be something I could do.  I loved my carbs, cheese and wine.  (All the right ingredients for a good party right?!?!)  But I wanted to make a change in my everyday life quick.  This is my WHY:

·         *Challenge – Was I up for this?  I have never fully challenged myself on a food program the way Whole 30 does.  There are NO cheat days!  You eat 3 very fulfilling healthy meals with no snacking in between.  I was a big 5 – 6 small meals a day kind of girl so this was a huge change for me.

·         *Dependency on dairy – OMG I am in love with milk and always have been as a child!  I grew up where we had a glass of milk with every dinner and that habit carried over into my adulthood.  Then as I got older and discovered wine, cheese is the perfect pairing right!  I knew this was going to be my weak moment in the 30 day challenge, but excluding this from my diet is where I saw the craziest results!

·       *  “Rewarded” with food – I am fully aware I am not a dog and if I sit I don’t get a treat.  But we do this so often in our everyday life, reward ourselves with food.  If I had a bad day, I need a Happy Hour.  I ate good tonight so I can have that bowl of ice cream.  Whole 30 is all about the protein, fruits and vegetables, there is no “if”, “ands” or “buts” about it; that is what you are eating.

·         *Clean Eating – I have never fully eaten clean in my life, so I knew cooking was going to be challenging.  I read the book, “It Starts with Food” and got some good ideas from it, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough.  I followed any Pinterest page I found and about 3 bloggers.  Talk about creative eating, I had discovered a new way to cook and prepare food.  And it was good!

·        * Results – WOW!  I was stunned by the way I looked, how wonderful I felt and the energy I had.  Energy fuels the body people, it’s a true statement! 

After Whole 30, I slowly added the “no no” foods of Whole 30 back in to my diet and I paid for it.  My body spoke to me in a way it has never done before and I now choose my foods wisely.  I am enjoying the lifestyle of food the way Whole 30 opened my eyes up to.  The experience is a life changing one and I would challenge anyone to do it, as it changed my life in unexpected ways!


DAY 17 FOOD LOG:

Pre-Workout - apples and almond butter, a few bites of smoked chicken

Post-Workout - 1/2 beef burger patty, nuts

Meal 1 - Omelet with bacon, sausage, tomato, bell pepper, topped with salsa, side of mixed fuit

Meal 2 - Bacon and Okra Pilau, Chicken Salad with Spinach

Meal 3 - Grilled pork tenderloin,  roasted Brussels sprouts and bacon

4 Good Food Standards

The Whole30 program centers around four Good Food Standards that we should be asking ourselves about each thing we put in our bodies.  Keep in mind, the food that we eat should:

1.  Promote a healthy psychological response - foods that do NOT promote a healthy psychological response light up pleasure, reward, and emotional pathways in the brain, offering super-normally stimulating flavors without providing the nutrition that nature intended.  These are foods-with-no-breaks, promoting over consumption and the inability to control your cravings, habits, and behaviors.

2 - Promote a healthy hormonal response - foods that do NOT promote a healthy hormonal response disrupt your normal hormonal balance, promoting leptin resistance, insulin resistance (and all of the negative downstream effects that follow), disrupting glucagon's energy-access function and elevating cortisol levels.

3 - Support a healthy gut - foods that do NOT support a healthy gut directly promote intestinal permeability, leading to a less-than-intact barrier that lets foreign substances get inside the body (where they do not belong).  Foods that fail this good food standard by default also fail the fourth.

4 - Support immune function and minimize inflammation - foods that do NOT support immune function and minimize inflammation by creating intestinal permeability (as mentioned above) or directly promoting chronic systemic inflammation force your immune system out of a healthy balance.  This can lead to the development of systemic inflammatory symptoms or auto-immune diseases and is a central risk factor for many lifestyle related diseases or conditions.




Day 15 Food Log:  (HALFWAY THERE!!)

Pre-camp - shredded turkey meat, apples, almond butter

Meal 1 - turkey sausage, sweet potato, bell pepper, mushroom "casserole"

pre-workout - 2 turkey meatballs

Meal 2 - Roasted green beans, turkey twice-baked sweet potatoes

Meal 3 - Grilled chicken salad with bacon, avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, and pico, roasted Brussels sprouts

WATER ALL DAY!

The Truth about Dairy

MISCONCEPTION:
Milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream are just a few dairy products that are staples in households of many Americans, right? A few quotes which may sound familiar: "I need milk for calcium and strong bones." "Yogurt is a must, it helps with my digestion." "I cannot go without cheese, it goes with everything I eat." Ice cream is my treat at the end of a rough day", or "ice cream, oh, it's just for the kids."

TRUTH:
Acne, allergies, asthma, bloating, GI upset, headaches, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, juvenile myopia, impaired kidney function, kidney stones, type 1 diabetes, are just a few "side effects/illnesses" which can be brought on by the consumption of dairy in children and adults. (It Starts with Food)

Guess what?! Cow's milk IS the perfect food . . .  if you're a CALF!  Read more about the science behind why dairy may be making you less healthy here !  I PROMISE you will learn something!


Day 13 Food Log:

Pre-camp - shredded turkey meat, apples, almond butter

Meal 1 - turkey sausage, sweet potato, bell pepper, mushroom "casserole"

Meal 2 - mini egg pizzas, Brussels sprouts

Meal 3 - smoked chicken, roasted green beans, creamy tomato soup

WATER ALL DAY!