I’m Back!

Aloha my loves. I feel like it’s been FOREVER since I wrote a blog post. Really, it’s only been two weeks, but you know the interwebs moves so fast, it’s like content just dissapears into the void if you’re not constantly creating new stuff. It’s a weird feeling, to make something, have thoughts, emotions and time invested in it… then send it off into the void. Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but even I forget about some of my older recipes. There A LOT of recips on this website… over the last two and half years I have shared over 300 recipes for free. On top of that I have sold over 100 recipes in the last few months to my recipe development clients. I often need to stop and appreciate how creativity and passion are  constantly regenerating and evolving! Anywho, I’m back from vacation and I’m ready to jump right back in to work. So many exciting things on the horizon and I can’t wait to share it all with you folks.

Answering some questions…

• What is keto?

Keto is a diet, a lifestyle, like paleo… except for the basis of the ketogenic diet is an absence of carbs and the addition of healthy fats. In a nutshell you eat very low carb, with moderate amounts of protein and plenty of healthy fat. This causes your body to go into ketosis. In the absence of glycogen (sugar), your liver will create ketones from fat and use it for fuel. The benefits of eating this way include low and very stable blood sugar, and in turn very stable energy. The high caloric nature of the meals are extremely satiating. Folks often find it easy to fast or go various hours between meals (I know I do!). This is great for stabilising hormones, and giving your body a chance to burn stored body fat for fuel (yes!); my favorite benefit of keto is the mental clarity. I find that I am razor sharp and full of energy, even fasted!

There are many ways to keto…

BUT the way I do it is quite simple; I avoid starchy vegetables. I eat paleo, no grains, dairy, legumes etc. My diet still consists of plenty of vegetables, some berries, some seeds, some nuts are ok (although I am currently omitting them) and I source my fat and protein very carefully. On keto, GOOD FAT is a must. Even if I can only afford ground beef, I buy grass fed. I eat plenty of grass-fed ghee, coconut oil, and avocado. I eat eggs. I eat a lot of cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, kale, and zucchini! I love gelatin based proteins supplements. I drink butter coffee every morning. I feel amazing!

Team no nightshades. So my low carb veggies do not include tomatoes, eggplant or peppers. I do not eat dairy (except grass-fed butter or ghee). No cheese for me, please. I do eat delicious meals on the daily!

• Why did I go keto, and was is the Autoimmune Protocol?

I did the autoimmune protocol, an elimination diet to heal leaky gut and find out trigger foods to heal autoimmune disease. You can read more about my journey HERE. It really was life-changing, and I still avoid the foods which I learned cause inflammation in my body through the AIP.

Healing isn’t a linear journey. One day I realized I wasn’t progressing, and some symptoms were returning.  Frustrated that my rapid healing and weight loss came to a screeching halt, although I was still doing everything right, following all the rules. That’s when I began my N=1 experiments. I read a lot of books, articles and tried a lot of approaches, from low carb paleo to more carbs and back again.

What I learned: My hormones were out of whack (crazy high estrogen levels), I had SIBO (too much bad bacteria in my small intestine), I was insulin resistant. Wouldn’t you know it, low carb would help all of these things. The problem, when I went low carb before it wasn’t low enough. I was under my 100 grams of carbs a day, but still eating a lot of starchy foods. Most folks, that’s A-ok. For me, it spiked my blood sugar, fed the bad bacteria in my small intestine and in turn didn’t do my hormones any favors.

All signs led to keto. Not going to lie, I was very skeptical at first. Everything online about keto included a lot of dairy or processed foods… even a few threads on Reddit about folks ONLY eating eggs and meat. I was not about to give up the beloved vegetables that helped me heal. So.. I did it my way! (Frank Sinatra playing in the background)

I read this book No Fail Fat Burning For Women by Skye St. John. I know, the title sounds sooooo freaking gimmicky. But it was very useful. I broke down keto into a 21 day program without any fake food, dairy or crazy ingredients. It was specific to women, which hi, I’m one of those. I talk about that book more in THIS POST. 

• Is keto right for you?

Any diet can be tweaked to work for anyone. We are all special little snowflakes and our nutritional needs are equally unique. If you’re not feeling so hot, and think that keto can help you out, give it a shot, but that doesn’t mean you throw EVERYTHING you know about YOUR BODY out the window! Ya dig? 

For example, I’m doing keto without dairy or nightshades because they don’t jive with my body. I also still eat a lot of veggies, and I don’t track my macros because it makes me crazy. I eat intuitively and only eat startches (like sweet potato) at night, after an intense workout. That works for me.

I am still learning and I want to be able to answer all of your questions. In that vein, I am scheduling holistic and integrative nutritionists to write guests posts with all their sciency goodness for you all. I want to address things like keto for hashimoto’s and other AI issues. Keto + working out. Keto and hormone balance… all this more so that my own experiences.

Now this recipe… which is all of the above… paleo, keto and aip!

You’ll need two 16oz ramekins or a medium sized baking dish if you want to make them together. No need for a mandolin, I used my knife to slice the veggies.

MAKE THIS SAUCE AHEAD OF TIME: CAULIFLOWER ALFREDO!