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100+ Low Carb Keto Thanksgiving Recipes
There is absolutely no need to feel deprived or left out on Thanksgiving, just because you are following a low carb, keto approach to your eating. Here are 100+ low carb keto Thanksgiving recipes, from drinks and apps to sides, sugar-free desserts and everything in between.
100+ Low Carb Keto Thanksgiving Recipes
Dietary Legend
Absolutely ALL of the below recipes are gluten-free! Some are vegan, almost all are paleo and dairy-free, etc. Use this key to easily select the recipes that will work for you:V – Vegan
Veg – Vegetarian
P – Paleo
DF – Dairy-free
NF – Nut-free
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Body Scan Meditation for Sleep
Get ready for some serious shut-eye with this 15-minute guided meditation for sleep. Meditation offers an effective, natural solution for anyone looking to get a more restful night’s sleep.
In this guided meditation for sleep you will utilize the breath and physical sensation in the body as an opportunity to let go of the day and soothe your body and your mind to help you drift off with ease into a peaceful slumber.
I hope we all know by now the incredible importance that sleep plays in our health, it’s just as important as our food and nutrition, movement and hydration. Prioritizing your sleep is crucial to living a vibrant, healthful life – but our busy minds and stress-filled days can make drifting off a challenge. If we can climb into bed without the stimulation of phones or laptops, if we can take the time to relax our busy, cluttered monkey minds, we are rewarded with a peaceful slumber that will rejuvenate our next days. Because when we settle the mind and rest the body, that restfulness is what makes it easier to wind down and drift off.
With 7-9 hours being the recommended duration for healthy, restful sleep, we have to actively work to prioritize our sleep and create habits and rituals that support a healthy sleep environment and encourage synchronization with our natural circadian rhythms.
Meditation has been shown to improve the quality and efficiency of sleep, how quickly you fall asleep, and how long you can stay awake during the day. Meditating just prior to bed can help you to fall asleep faster and once you are asleep, you’re likely to sleep much more soundly, too.
In addition to this nightly bedtime meditation, I suggest a daily meditation practice earlier in the day, as well, as this can continue to support mindfulness, stress management and create a more rested mind that is primed and set for a restful night’s sleep. Even just 5 or 10 minutes a day. You can also try a pre-bed daily gratitude practice. An attitude of gratitude promotes longer, sounder sleep 1https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minding-the-body/201111/how-gratitude-helps-you-sleep-night.
For more on the Science of Sleep along with tips on improving your sleep, along with bedtime rituals, supplements, recommended approaches for managing insomnia and more, check out Episode 06 of the Between Meals Podcast with Dr. Param Dedhia.
Process and Progress NOT Perfection.
Remember, if this is a new practice for you, when it comes to meditation for sleep, the most important thing to get you started is making an effort to meditate and to get quiet before you try to sleep; like most things in life – practice, practice, practice. Getting comfortable with your meditation style, learning to silence the busy noise of our minds and breath work will happen the more you do it.
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THANK YOU FOR LISTENING:
Since we are still pretty new on iTunes, please do us a solid and SUBSCRIBE and of course, we would be honored if you took the time to rate and review the show, this will help more people find us and help the show to grow! If you liked this episode or others, please share on social media and tag us, share with friends and family, etc – this means the world!
References
1. ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minding-the-body/201111/how-gratitude-helps-you-sleep-night -
11 Natural Ways to Boost Your Immune System
A healthy body is dependent on a strong immune system. Rather than just strengthening our immune system we want to train our immune system to do it’s job correctly. Today I am sharing just some of my favorite natural tips for supporting and building a strong immune system that have worked for me. Here are 11 Natural Ways to Boost Your Immune System…
11 Natural Tips to Boost Your Immune System
Simple, holistic tips to fight illness and strengthen your immunity PLUS what you can do if you do get sick, to fight it quickly.
Go With Your Gut
I can tell you from personal experience that the very best way to ward off chronic illness, colds, flus, infections, allergies, food sensitivities and controlling / avoiding autoimmune disease is to heal and strengthen the gut! With 70-80% of our immune system’s cells occupying our gut, this is home base for our vitality and wellness. Our gut bacteria helps the immune system’s T cells develop—teaching them the difference between a foreign substance and the body’s own tissues. Without these important immune soldiers doing their job to protect us, the nasties get in, they slip by the troops, invade, wage war, take over and it’s not fun!
With years of comprised digestion, intestinal bacterial overgrowth and finally being diagnosed with a parasite, I personally spent a solid decade to 15 years, getting terrible sinus infections, several times a year, every year, most times it then eventually evolved into bronchitis and upper respiratory infections. I got every single strain of every cold, flu and stomach bug that passed through town – I even battled the Swine Flu when that was a thing. On top of all of that, I suffered for many, many years with a variety of environmental allergies – ALL of this stopped when I finally healed my gut and prioritized proper digestion. It’s magical really. But, it’s not. It’s simple.
As you’ll hear echoed many times throughout this article, and if you spend more than about 5 minutes chatting with me at any given time, our gut is vital to our immune health and it’s the control center for our bodies to decide what is friend and what is foe. I highly encourage you to prioritize optimizing your gut, both for the cold and flu season ahead, as well as the future of your overall health and wellness. If you want to learn more about how to heal your gut – GRAB THE FREE GUT HEALTH 101 GUIDE BOOK
Along with tips for strengthening and healing your gut, here are some tips to Naturally Boost Your Immune System:
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Between Meals Podcast. Episode 06: The Science of Sleep and How to Fix It.
There are very few things that are as crucial to our health as a good night’s sleep. On this episode of the Between Meals Podcast we are joined by sleep expert Param Dedhia, MD and we are talking ALL about the science of sleep and how to fix it. Disordered sleep or a lack of sleep are serious stressors on the body that can affect heart health, insulin resistance, cognitive function and moods, fat loss and more. If you have trouble sleeping or simply want to optimize or better prioritize your sleep – this episode is for you.
Dr. Dedhia is a Physician, Weight Loss Program Leader & Director of Sleep Medicine, Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona where he championed the re-launch of the Weight Loss Program at the Life Enhancement Center and actively serves as Director of Sleep Medicine. He specializes in internal medicine, executive health, preventive cardiology, longevity, mind-body medicine, integrative medicine, weight loss and sleep.
SHOW NOTES, TOPICS & REFERENCES:
- The importance of making sleep a priority, how many hours of sleep is enough?
- Sleep quantity vs quality – which is most important?
- The Sleep Heart Health Study (sleep apnea and it’s affects on heart health)
- Correlation between metabolic syndrome and sleep apnea
- Are you cheating yourself of sleep for more hours of “productivity”? How a full night’s sleep can benefit your work, creativity and productivity.
- The importance of the timing of your sleep, does it matter when you go to sleep and when you wake up?
- What can you do if you are alert and awake at bedtime.
- Understanding circadian rhythm.
- Your day time sets up your night time – tips for setting up a day that will encourage a better night’s sleep.
- The importance of bedtime rituals.
- How sleep can scrub out negative thoughts from the day prior.
- Why you might be waking up in the middle of the night.
- Understanding the various sleep cycles and what happens in each.
- Stay curious – 6 common signs that your sleep is not normal.
- If you have sleep apnea – do you NEED a CPAP machine?
- Is severe disordered sleep equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes?
- Why do some people sleep deeply and other people are more light sleepers?
- Sleep supplements and other natural remedies.
- A sleepy brain is a hungry brain.
AND MORE!
And of course, as always, we finish the interview portion of the show with a fun game of Would You Rather?
Be sure to stick around for the wrap up portion of the show where we talk briefly about:
- different types of magnesium, which are best for sleeping?
- bed time rituals and practices + things to consider for better sleep.
- why your low carb diet may be affecting your sleep.
LISTEN NOW ON ITUNES
References:
- How to Stock a Healthy Keto Pantry
- More Resetful Sleep Bedtime Yoga and Boosted Sleepy Time Yoga
- 10 Minute Grounding Meditation
- How to Take a Break from Coffee and Why You May Want to Consider It
- 14 day Caffeine-free Challenge
LISTEN NOW ON ITUNES
You can now subscribe to Between Meals on iTunes or Soundcloud.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING:
Since we are still pretty new on iTunes, please do us a solid and SUBSCRIBE and of course, we would be honored if you took the time to rate and review the show, this will help more people find us and help the show to grow! If you liked this episode or others, please share on social media and tag us, share with friends and family, etc – this means the world!
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Between Meals Podcast // Bites Episode 07: How Do You Get Started?
Between Meals // Bites Episode 07 is the final in the 3-part series all about Motivation, Priorities and Small Steps. Based on your feedback and requests on these topics, we pulled together this series that I am so excited to share with you all.
In the first episode we talked specifically about motivation, what exactly that means and some ideas on how to critically investigate what you are doing that IS working and what you are doing that IS NOT working, so you can have some clarity in the process of getting to whatever it is that you seek for yourself and have an understanding of what exactly is acting as a barrier. In the second episode we talk all about priorities and making time so there is less pressure on seeking external motivation and needing willpower and there is more focus on creating systems and a process. It’s about creating habits that can one day be effortless, no negotiations needed.
After the checks and balances of the first two episodes, in this final episode we are chatting all about small steps and just diving in and getting started! All it takes is one small step. One step is action and action is momentum and this is what creates movement, shifts and change.
We are talking about the small steps, just doing a little something. Not always focusing on results or goals and instead creating habits.
ARE YOU READY TO COMMIT TO A FEW SMALL STEPS?
WHAT IS ONE SMALL STEP YOU CAN TAKE TODAY?
Don’t forget, be sure to listen to the first two part in this series Part One: How Do You Stay Motivated? and Part Two: How Do You Make Time for It? and head back to the archives, for more conversations similar to this, like Episode 02 we talk about finding our WHY, Bites Episode 04 we talk about Shoulding All over Yourself and even within the Bites Business Mastermind Series we have plenty of discussions surrounding perfectionism and comparison that pertains to this conversation, too.
Mark’s Podcast Episode: My Greatest Tip for Productivity
LISTEN NOW ON ITUNES
(listen on iTunes)You can now subscribe to Between Meals on iTunes or Soundcloud.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING:
Since we are still pretty new on iTunes, please do us a solid and SUBSCRIBE and of course, we would be honored if you took the time to rate and review the show, this will help more people find us and help the show to grow! If you liked this episode or others, please share on social media and tag us, share with friends and family, etc – this means the world!
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Between Meals Podcast // Bites Episode 06: How Do You Make Time for It?
Between Meals // Bites Episode 06 is the second in a three-part series where we are chatting all about Motivation, Priorities and Small Steps. Based on your feedback and requests on these topics, we pulled together this series that I am so excited to share with you all.
In the first episode we talked specifically about motivation, what exactly that means and some ideas on how to critically investigate what you are doing that IS working and what you are doing that IS NOT working, so you can have some clarity in the process of getting to whatever it is that you seek for yourself and have an understanding of what exactly is acting as a barrier.
In this second part, I am excited to be sharing a tool that I recently implemented into my own life for prioritizing the things that I want to accomplish and felt I never had time for. Plus, we talk about getting systems in place for finding the time to develop new habits that will become as effortless as the ones that are just part of every day life. No negotiations or motivations needed. Again, I think it’s important to remember when we look to create habits and focus on the small steps of forward momentum, it really becomes so much less about a reliance on motivation and it isn’t about looking for the magical super powers needed to reach huge, unrealistic goals. Ultimately you have the freedom to worry less that you are ON or OFF track and it simply becomes about living the life you’ve cultivated for yourself by prioritizing what is most important to you RIGHT NOW.
Stay tuned for next weeks final episode in this three-part series, where we will talk all about small steps and getting started!Ultimately, I have to say that think the idea of willpower, self control and relying on motivations are kinda B.S., because to me when we rely on these as the means to get to where we want to go, it seems as if you are placing all hope in the idea that these strike right when you need them to and ultimately you aren’t taking responsibility for the process or for creating systems that will make the life you want to be living sustainable, effortless and simply just that, living. Not on track, not on the wagon, not on a diet.
I think just like your health, we really need to get to the root cause of what is stopping you from developing the new habits in the first place, as those are the true catalysts of making lasting change. In my opinion, also like your health, when it comes to your behaviors you need to be approaching things on a foundational level, rather than symptomatically. You just need to get systems in place that work for YOU, rather than beating yourself up for not reaching a goal or reverting to old habits because of a lack of future plans, when you finally do hit a goal. Because it then leaves it to either you did it or you didn’t, “you win” or “you lose”. Black and white. Right or wrong. When you don’t meet the goal, what is almost never acknowledged is that the problem actually isn’t you, the problem is the process (or the lack there of).
Some of what we investigate in this episode was actually quite hard for me to wrap my brain around as I began to implement them, myself. As a true Rebel (see Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies), at least when it comes to my work, I always hated the idea of systems, habits and time blocking – the idea of it all always felt restricting and like I would lose my freedom to go with the flow in the process, but I have come to realize that in developing the habits and the systems, I finally have clarity in what I am doing. By creating daily habits and systems it has opened up my life and given me more freedoms than I ever knew, because I know what I am doing and I know when I have the space to just exist without flailing and feeling like I should be doing more. When I looked at my health journey and how I prioritize my wellness and vibrancy, those systems and those habits are exactly what has allowed me to be so successful, so it’s no different.
ARE YOU READY TO ASK YOURSELF IF YOUR GOALS /WANTS ARE A PRIORITY?
WE’D LOVE IF YOU SHARE YOUR PRIORITIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA – PLEASE TAG @TASTYYUMMIES!
Stay tuned for next weeks final episode in the series, all about small steps and getting started!
Don’t forget, be sure to listed to the first part in this series How Do You Stay Motivated? and head back to the archives, for more conversations similar to this, like Episode 02 we talk about finding our WHY, Bites Episode 04 we talk about Shoulding All over Yourself and even within the bites business mastermind series we have plenty of discussions surrounding perfectionism and comparison that pertains to this conversation, too.
LISTEN NOW ON ITUNES
(listen on iTunes)You can now subscribe to Between Meals on iTunes or Soundcloud.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING:
Since we are still pretty new on iTunes, please do us a solid and SUBSCRIBE and of course, we would be honored if you took the time to rate and review the show, this will help more people find us and help the show to grow! If you liked this episode or others, please share on social media and tag us, share with friends and family, etc – this means the world!
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Between Meals Podcast // Bites Episode 05: How Do You Stay Motivated?
Between Meals // Bites Episode 05 we are chatting all about Motivation, Priorities and First Steps. Motivation is defined as your general desire or willingness to do something. Based on your feedback and requests on these topics, we pulled together a series of three mini BITES episodes and this first episode is ALL about MOTIVATION.
I have to be honest, it was a bit of a challenge in some ways for me to wrap my brain around what I wanted to share and communicate with you all on this idea. Motivation is an interesting and pretty huge topic. There are some areas of my life personally, like my health, nutrition and fitness, (which are the areas that most of you asked about) where motivation doesn’t exactly feel like a factor at this point. I have a lifestyle built on a series of choices I have made and continue to make and habits I have formed and implement.
That’s not to say motivation never played a role, but I am so deeply invested in and the habits are so rooted, for many of these things, it rarely feels like there is a reliance to get motivated or a need to find it. There’s not ever a negotiation, it’s just what I do.
So, I had to really sit with it all and look back at where I started, to truly wrap my brain around what I could share with you all, but I also spent some time investigating the areas of my life where I maybe DO struggle with the motivation and I took a look at the steps necessary for prioritizing the things I really and truly want.
I am excited about this series and I am also really looking forward to hearing from all of you on what resonates with you, what you still struggle with and to keep the dialogue flowing.
Don’t forget, head back to the archives, for more conversations similar to this, like Episode 02 we talk about finding our WHY, Bites Episode 04 we talk about Shoulding All over Yourself and even within the bites business mastermind series we have plenty of discussions surrounding perfectionism and comparison that pertains to this conversation, too.
LISTEN NOW ON ITUNES
(listen on iTunes)You can now subscribe to Between Meals on iTunes or Soundcloud.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING:
Since we are still pretty new on iTunes, please do us a solid and SUBSCRIBE and of course, we would be honored if you took the time to rate and review the show, this will help more people find us and help the show to grow! If you liked this episode or others, please share on social media and tag us, share with friends and family, etc – this means the world!
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Between Meals Podcast. Episode 05: Keto Confusion, Myths & Dropping the Dogma
When it comes to keto, I hear the same questions time and time again from so many of you, from my clients and family members, as well I am constantly observing a general overabundance of rumors and myths. The keto confusion is SO REAL! Keto is a super trendy nutritional approach right now, with very good reason, and while I find there is lots of misinformation and misconceptions, I truly believe the benefits and potential, for so many, is getting lost in the dogma, the rules, the unimportant details and straight-up myths.
In episode 5 of the Between Meals Podcast, I am joined by Leanne Vogel of Healthful Pursuit and we take on the most common keto rumors, we answer a few questions from my readers, we chat about the keto misconceptions we encounter most often, Leanne shares her thoughts on carb-ups, plus how to know when to do it and so much more!
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SHOW NOTES, TOPICS & REFERENCES:
- Download Keep it Simple Keto, my brand new FREE 7 Day Quick Start Guide to Keto.
- fat loss isn’t the only purpose of the keto diet
- keto isn’t ALWAYS about changing our bodies
- health isn’t a static definition or a destination
- we discuss common keto myths like: don’t have to eat fat to burn fat, protein kicks you out of ketosis, a calorie is a calorie, etc.
- do you need to follow specific macros or static percentages?
- when tracking ketones is helpful and why it may actually be working against you.
- do you have to eat dairy?
- carb ups – how to know when it might be a good idea and some suggestions on how to approach it – timing and not fearing, using to your benefit
- the potential risks with getting lost in the rules
- practical tips for making keto work for YOU and learning how to customize your approach for your goals
AND MORE!
And of course, as always, we finish the interview portion of the show with a fun game of Would You Rather?
References:
- Leanne’s Instagram Post about her Bathing Suit Body
- Robb Wolf video debunking gluconeogenesis and how protein is NOT going to ruin your keto efforts
- Nutrition Tips for More Energy. Avoid the Afternoon Crash
Be sure to stick around for the wrap up portion of the show where we talk briefly about:
- intermittent fasting
- keto for those struggling with imbalanced hormones deficiencies, PCOS, Hashimoto’s Disease and more
- + we give you some tips on how to answer ‘is this food keto?’
Get more from Leanne Vogel:
- Leanne’s free keto starter guide!
- Happy Keto Body Sign up for updates on Leanne’s 12-week online keto program for women, relaunching in 2019!
- The Keto Diet Podcast, hosted by Leanne (Be sure to check out Ep 66 featuring, yours truly – Beth Manos Brickey ☺ )
- Leanne’s Keto Unlimited group, a Patreon community where she shares behind the scenes insight on her new paperback, keto inspiration, and tons of exclusive member benefits.
Follow Leanne on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
LISTEN NOW ON ITUNES
You can now subscribe to Between Meals on iTunes or Soundcloud.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING:
Since we are still pretty new on iTunes, please do us a solid and SUBSCRIBE and of course, we would be honored if you took the time to rate and review the show, this will help more people find us and help the show to grow! If you liked this episode or others, please share on social media and tag us, share with friends and family, etc – this means the world!
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A Guide to Smarter Smoothies {Video}
While smoothies have become a popular meal replacement, snack and all around trendy food, crafted incorrectly you can be consuming a sugar-loaded, blood sugar exploding cocktail. I am excited to share with you A Guide to Smarter Smoothies to hopefully help you understand how to better create the smoothies that are right for you.
If you’ve been reading Tasty Yummies for some time, you probably know that the archives are LOADED with smoothie recipes. Smoothies used to play a much larger role in my daily diet routine, for the longest time it was always my favorite way to start my day. Interestingly at the height of my smoothie consumption, weight loss was definitely a struggle, as were energy crashes and sugar cravings. What I didn’t know back then, but I do know now as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, is that without the proper formulation, smoothies are a blood sugar explosion waiting to happen.
Every time you consume any carbohydrates and sugar containing foods, it causes an increase in blood glucose. How much so is dependent on the food and the individual. Simple sugars more specifically (monosaccharides), those sugars ending in -ose, sucrose, glucose, fructose, lactose, galactose, maltose – these are metabolized especially quickly and can often cause a big surge in insulin.
Our body’s innate intelligence continually monitors the amount of glucose in our bloodstream to maintain balance and homeostasis. When blood glucose levels increase, the pancreas releases the hormone insulin. Insulin increases the uptake of glucose by our muscle and fat cells; increases the amount of glycogen in our muscle and liver; increases fatty acid synthesis from excessive carbohydrates; and decreases fat breakdown and mobilization from our fat tissue.
How Bad Can a Fruit-Loaded Smoothie Be?
With a spike in blood sugar, a release of insulin and the impending crash, no matter what food is the initial cause, this can lead to immediate hunger, mid-day cravings, energy crashes, lightheadedness, anxiety, etc. Even worse, if the rest of your day’s eating (and most days) continue on the carb and sugar path, you are absolutely creating a long term problem. Whether you are overweight, struggle with weight loss or notice blood sugar issues or not.
Day in and day out this roller coaster can lead to a slew of health complications beyond obesity, lethargy and cravings. To simplify the worst of it, constant output of insulin is like the boy that cried wolf, your cells stop responding to the insulin that is constantly being produced and they become resistant, meaning without the insulin to transport the excess glucose to your cells for energy production, blood sugar levels remain high and this is can lead to chronic insulin resistance, pre-diabetes and eventually diabetes.
These days, I personally prefer to opt for (and I recommend to my clients) the prioritizing of nutrient-dense whole foods, rather than drinkable meals, like smoothies or juice. Whole foods offer the opportunity for maximum nutrient absorption, which allows our digestion to work as intended, and assuming these whole foods aren’t loaded up with carbohydrates and sugar – it’s much easier on your blood sugar.
That said, in the summer I do find myself with a much different appetite and my cravings differ quite significantly from the cooler months. I am not nearly as ravenous for more robust meals, especially on the hotter days. In the summer months I find myself wanting and craving more smoothies than any other time of the year. Knowing what I know now, my approach to creating them has drastically changed, so today I am going to share with you my Guide to Smarter Smoothies.
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Nutrition Tips for More Energy. Avoid the Afternoon Crash. {Video}
Watch this short video to learn how to create the kind of meals that won’t leave you starving within an hour or crashing mid-day! I am giving you the nutrition tips for more energy that I give to all my nutrition clients to help them to ditch the burn out and avoid the afternoon crash.
Each meal is an opportunity to create health and powerful lasting energy or to promote fatigue, constant hunger, inflammation, or worse – disease! I am sharing with you simple tips and my favorite easy-to-remember analogy that you can use at every meal, for building meals that will promote more energy and help you to avoid the dreaded afternoon crash!
We’ve all been there. The 10am hanger, despite eating breakfast or that 2pm crash where you simply just CAN’T EVEN! Rather than coffee to get you through or snacking every two hours, check out the nutrition tips for more energy that I give to all my nutrition clients for building the kind of meals that will creating consistent, all-day-long energy!
Remember at every meal, if you are running strictly on carbohydrates, this is why you are needing to “fuel the fire” every couple of hours. Even those healthful, nutrient-dense carbs, on their own it gives us quick fueling energy, but without a more sustainable energy source, like protein and fat, this means we are constantly tending to the fire.
Examples of:
Healthful Proteins:
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Kimchi Cauliflower Fried Rice {Keto, Paleo, Whole30}
Easy Keto Kimchi Cauliflower Fried Rice comes together with your favorite protein and it’s ready it just about 15 minutes. This easy and quick Kimchi Cauliflower Fried Rice recipe is also paleo, Whole30 with vegan options. If you have never had Kimchi Cauliflower Fried Rice, life is about to change. Don’t miss this simple Keto Kimchi Cauliflower Fried Rice recipe, made extra easy with my secret weapon!
To know me, it to know my excitement for all things food! More importantly, beyond my simplistic love of food and cooking, it’s the real special things, like knowing where my food comes from, why it’s good for me, the impact that my food choices make on the environment and my health – that’s where I get real giddy. It’s just a true nerdy love affair, from top to bottom.
Anytime I can connect with my food on a deeper level, I jump at the chance. The wonder of the whole process is truly so special to me and I find each bite tastes so much better and each meal is so much more meaningful when I can slow down and acknowledge the full process and the full journey the food took to my plate. Our food is so much more than seeds, soil, sun and water. It’s love, it’s passion and it’s so so much work! We cannot ever take for granted the amount of energy that goes into our food.
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Between Meals Podcast. Episode 04: Celebrating Non-Scale Victories // Don’t Caught Up in Meaningless Metrics
We’ve all been there… letting the scale determine our worth, letting our followers, our likes and other arbitrary metrics determine our progress and our success. I am excited today to be chatting about how-to Celebrate the Non-Scale Victories – Don’t get caught up in the meaningless metrics.
Progress isn’t linear, nor is it always measurable in traditional ways. In your health, in business, in life! Speaking specifically about our health, we can’t use weight as our only measure of success. There are many other ways to see results and to measure our progress, taking pressure off of the arbitrary metric-based goals, like the number on a scale, as our only measure for our meeting goals. In Episode 04 of Between Meals we talk all about celebrating non-scale victories and measuring progress in our health and in our life, in non-traditional ways and not letting the numbers define you!
Episode References: Episode 02 – Eyes on Your Whys
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I would LOVE if you took the time to share in the comments here some of your own Non-Scale Victories
You can now subscribe to Between Meals on iTunes or Soundcloud.
Since we are new on iTunes, please SUBSCRIBE and we would be honored if you took the time to rate and review the show, this will help more people find us and help the show to grow! If you liked this episode or others, please share with friends and family!
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Keto Strawberry Shortcake with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries and Basil Whipped Coconut Cream {gluten-free, paleo}
What? Low Carb Keto Strawberry Shortcake? Yup, you read that correctly. This dreamy, classic summer treat gets a bit of an update with grain-free, low carb biscuits, tasty balsamic roasted strawberries and a basil infused whipped coconut cream. Real food, no weird ingredients. Just some tasty, clean whole foods.
Let’s start off by saying, if you think I’ve lost my mind and if you want to keep this classic dessert more simple and traditional, you can very very easily follow this recipe, opt simply for fresh strawberries or just roast the strawberries without the balsamic, but if you’ve never had balsamic roasted strawberries, yet, you truly aren’t living. And as for the basil infused coconut cream, will change your life. That has to be said.
This recipe is quite fuss-free, despite the amount of characters required to accurately describe it. Make the easy, grain-free low carb biscuits ahead and while they are baking you can prep the strawberries to go into the oven next and then finally, whip together that delicious, basil infused whipped coconut cream while the berries roast.
As far as I am concerned, strawberries are the quintessential summer fruit. They have such fond memories attached to them, for me. From strawberry picking with my mom and my sisters, to bowls of fresh berries being brought outside out for dessert after a delicious summer meal, enjoy al fresco. My mom loves to bake and she made an incredible strawberry shortcake, with fresh baking soda biscuits, which she always made to seem so effortless. Strawberry shortcake reminds me of backyard meals, towels wrapped around our chilly bodies from spending the entire day in the pool. It brings back memories of no school, being outside all day and late sunsets.
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10-Minute Grounding Meditation
This 10-Minute Grounding meditation is a guided practice incorporating a combination of breath, awareness, and visualization to connect you to the battery pack of the earth. Grounding allows you to draw up prana, energy, or life-force from Earth in order to become rejuvenated, revitalized, and restored. This is a great practice to use anytime you are experiencing times of stress, overwhelm or if you feel out of focus. Get comfortable and get grounded.
10-Minute Grounding Meditation
Meditation is an excellent way to reduce stress, reconnect with your body, mind and spirit and improve your health and well-being in a variety of ways.
When we meditate we rest the mind and attain a state of consciousness unlike our typical wakeful state. Rather than being focused on the external world or events taking place around us, we instead allow the mind space to become relaxed, clear and focused inward. Meditation gives us an opportunity to slow down and focus on self-awareness.
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Grounding
Grounding is the physical connection between the electrical frequencies of the human body with Earth’s. Practicing a guided grounded meditation will allow you to focus your mind on the present and learn to feel more balanced and aware. Grounding reconnects us with that felt sense of stability that resides within us all, it connects us to a foundation and roots us in stability and firmness.
When your mind is unfocused, you can feel uneasy, restless, and uncomfortable. Often just from the daily stresses of life we can feel scattered, overwhelmed, disconnected and spacey.
Grounding yourself can help you feel calm, peaceful and centered. This guided grounding meditation brings the opportunity for you to connect with the earth and experience a transfer of energy. By plugging into the Earth’s energy this helps to bring us back to our natural electrical state which is vital to our health as we are electrical beings.
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The 14-Day Caffeine-Free Challenge // Reset Your Caffeine Tolerance
This 14-Day Caffeine-Free Challenge serves as an opportunity to break the caffeine addiction for good or as a temporary break to give your neurotransmitters a hard reboot. Consider it a reset to your caffeine tolerance.
The 14-Day Caffeine-Free Challenge // Reset Your Caffeine Tolerance
To simplify it, as your body becomes accustomed to consuming caffeine, you need to consume more and more of it to experience the same energy boost. Acting in a similar manner to anti-depressants, high doses of caffeine on a regular basis acts as central nervous system stimulant and can flood the brain with neurotransmitters, creating neurotransmitter resistance or long term receptor damage 18. Olekalns, N. (1996). Rational addiction to caffeine. Journal of Political Economy, 104(5), 1100.
Reasons to Take a Break From Caffeine and Reset Your Caffeine Tolerance:
- Caffeine no longer affects you the way that it once did
- You crave caffeine and NEED it to start your day or to get through the day
- Your daily caffeine consumption amounts are insane
- You are experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety, anxiousness or adrenal fatigue
- Your sleep health has been suffering
- It’s leading to health problems
- Doctors orders
How-to Beat the Coffee Addiction
The good news: to kick the caffeine habit, you really only need to get through about 7-12 days without drinking any caffeine. During that time, your brain will naturally decrease the number of adenosine receptors on each cell, responding to the sudden lack of caffeine ingestion. If you can make it that long without a cup of joe or a spot of tea, the levels of adenosine receptors in your brain reset to their baseline levels, and your dependence will be broken. 2https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-is-how-your-brain-becomes-addicted-to-caffeine-26861037/
You can certainly go cold turkey on cutting out caffeine for this 14-day challenge, but if you are a hardcore caffeine consumer, you may want to consider preparing by cutting back gradually and replacing your traditional caffeinated coffee with either half decaf or more gentler forms of caffeine, found in quality teas like green or black tea. I personally really LOVE a Matcha White Hot Chocolate as a gentler alternative to caffeinated coffee, such a treat.
How-to Take a Break from Caffeine and Reset Your Caffeine Tolerance:
References
1. ↑ 8. Olekalns, N. (1996). Rational addiction to caffeine. Journal of Political Economy, 104(5), 1100. 2. ↑ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-is-how-your-brain-becomes-addicted-to-caffeine-26861037/ -
How-to Take a Break from Coffee (and Why You May Want to Consider It)
Are you feeling that afternoon slump and reaching for coffee or other caffeine to power through? Is your sleep inconsistent and often interrupted? Are you finding yourself needing more and more coffee to get through? Follow along to learn How-to Take a Break from Coffee and Why You May Want to Consider It.
How-to Take a Break from Coffee (and Why You May Want to Consider It)
I am not one of those die-hard, ride or die coffee drinkers who’s been at it every morning for many, many years. There was a very long time, during the middle of my healing journey that I wasn’t able to handle any coffee at all. Even a single cup would cause extreme jitters and serious feelings of anxiousness.
After I healed my gut, went through an extensive liver detox and rectified my adrenal fatigue, among many other things, I did a little experimenting and low and behold, me and coffee were friends once again. We would connect occasionally when I was craving it. Generally it was Boosted, as I found this lessened any jitters straight up black coffee might cause. Overtime I created my own Healthier French Vanilla Coffee Creamer for those folks in my life that wouldn’t give up the sketchy store-bought stuff. I learned to make my own cold brew at home and I even fell in love with a Mint Mojito Iced Coffee number and found myself adding it to keto granola. But, some time last year my occasional cup of coffee, only when it sounded good, turned into an every single morning thing. It became part of my morning routine and the ritual of it became as much a part of the craving (or more) as the caffeine itself.
Then my one 8 ounce cup of coffee in the morning turned into 12 ounces. Suddenly my life included the occasional afternoon coffee. Sometimes even an evening cup. This evolved into me craving coffee when I felt that afternoon slump hit and I would actually at times find myself smelling it, even when it wasn’t around because my brain was lusting after it so deeply to give me that boost. I was finding myself traveling and making plans for how I would get that perfect cup of coffee on the road.
It was fine. Because in my mind, coffee has so many wonderful health benefits and if a light caffeine reliance was the worst thing I had going for me, I would say I am doing pretty good in life. After all, at this point I have chosen to basically all processed foods and for the most part all grains, dairy, legumes, sugar, etc etc all to manage my health and autoimmune symptoms. Just let me have my dang coffee.
The Benefits of Coffee
Coffee has many brain-protective compounds and an abundance of antioxidants, polyphenols and bioactive compounds. Coffee contains vitamin C, magnesium, polyphenols, catechins, flavonoids, and chlorogenic acids. and it’s generally regarded quite favorably by recent research. 1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26784461
References
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Between Meals Podcast. Episode 03: Stress: It’s Effects on the Body & How To Cope
Between Meals Podcast Episode 03 Show Notes:
Episode 03 of Between Meals is ALL about STRESS, it’s effects on the body and how to cope. I am joined by my good friend and clinical psychologist at UCLA Dr. Deborah Schleicher, Psy.D and we talk about one of life’s most inevitable challenges.
Whether it comes from your job or family life, financial stressors, stress surrounding your diet and your health or even pressure from social media – while stress may be an unavoidable part of the human experience, it’s how we handle those stressors that is most important.
Listen to learn how living in a state of chronic stress can affect our health in catastrophic ways, along with simple tools to manage both external and self-inflicted stressors, tips for practicing self-compassion, plus expert advice on how to know when to seek additional support.
Listen Now on iTunes
Referenced Links:
Digestion 101 Series on Tasty Yummies
Self Compassion with Kristin Neff, Ph.D
The Healing Practice of Pratipaksha Bhavanam
You can now subscribe to Between Meals on iTunes or Soundcloud.
Since we are new on iTunes, please SUBSCRIBE and we would be honored if you took the time to rate and review the show, this will help more people find us and help the show to grow! If you liked this episode or others, please share with friends and family!
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Between Meals Podcast // Bites 01: Establishing an Online Presence
Chapter 01: Establishing an Online Presence: Tips and Resources for Getting Started.
Part 1 of a 3-Day Business Mastermind Workshop Series from the Nutritional Therapy Association Conference
Listen Now on iTunes
Show Notes:
Recorded Live at the Nutritional Therapy Association’s 2018 Annual Conference: Live Nourished, in Vancouver Washington, this is part one of a 3-Day Business Mastermind Workshop Series focused on Content Creation and Building a Presence Online created and hosted by Beth Manos Brickey, RYT, NTP of Tasty Yummies.
From blogging and sharing content of any kind online to establishing a social media presence, we cover practical mindset advice such as overcoming perfectionism and the crippling comparison that can arise with social media, we share our tips for managing the fear of putting yourself out there to finding your voice and prioritizing your purpose and your mission in your business to have clarity in the direction. We also discuss practical first steps like knowing who your audience is and creating content that will resonate along with resources for photography, tips for outsourcing various tasks and more.
Session one features my special guest Jen Alburquerque of Naked Flavors Nutrition
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Is Snacking Healthy? Should You Snack? + Smarter Snack Ideas
Is snacking healthy? Should you snack? If you find you are chronically grazing on many small meals throughout your day because of excessive hunger, you can likely blame imbalanced blood sugar and not eating for satiety. In this post we talk about snacking along with some healthy snack ideas for when a gap snack might be necessary.
Is Snacking Healthy? Should You Snack?
Let’s talk about snacks baby. Let’s talk about you and me. Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things, that may be. Let’s talk about snacks! hahah. Sorry. I digress. Seriously though. Determining what to eat is challenging enough of a question, but add to that, the question of when and how often to eat – this adds a whole new additional layer of unanswered inquiries and confusion for many.
Smaller More Frequent Meals Helps Boost Metabolism, Right?
While convention nutritional advice long touted 5-6 small meals throughout the day as a means to increase your metabolism and encourage fat loss, this antiquated approach doesn’t look at the full scope of our day and what is actually happening in the body with every snack or small meal. For so long, many “experts” believed the idea that many small meals is theoretically “stoking the metabolic fire,” while less frequent meals “slow your metabolism.” The thought process was that eating many small meals keeps your metabolism plugging away at a high rate for the entire day, helping you burn more fat. Conversely, it was thought that going too long between meals slows down your metabolism, so that when you do eat, your body is sluggish to respond to the caloric load and you end up storing it as fat.
Sounds pretty smart, right? But, guess what, it’s just not true. There isn’t any science to support it or research that proves smaller, more frequent meals has any metabolic advantage.
What we do know, as research has shown, the more you eat the more insulin your body releases, and this constant output of insulin interrupts the intended flow of blood sugar.
With every meal there is a rise in our blood sugar (which is just the amount of free glucose in our bloodstream) then a release of insulin follows. With lots of small meals through the day that means a blood sugar rollercoaster of highs and lows that can cause additional cravings, fat storage, mood changes, irritability and more.
Besides that, with every meal or snack that we eat, our body has to begin the process of digestion, this takes energy and time, as your body is breaking down the food into usable molecules that are absorbed by the body and utilized appropriately. This process takes energy away from other repairs and tasks your body should be doing. Anything we eat that the body cannot absorb or use in some capacity is then stored as fat. Whenever we snack this stops the process of our body using stored body fat in between meals.
The goal is to instead build a day with more steady blood sugar by getting enough fat and protein at every meal to reach satiety and not solely relying on refined starchy carbs and sugar for quick hits.
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Happy Hormones: The Importance of Digestion to Hormone Balance
This is the third Happy Hormones post in our Hormone-Focused Series from Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Brynn D’Avello. I suggest reading the first post The First Step to Happy Hormones and then the second post where we tackle how Blood Sugar Imbalance Affects Your Hormones before you dive into this post covering the Importance of Digestion to Hormone Balance.
As we discussed in the previous post in this series, as important and crucial as blood sugar regulation is to hormone balance in this latest installment we will discuss how digestion is a very, very close second. Since I know Beth has done a killer job breaking down the digestive process in her Digestion 101 series I am only going to touch on the highlights…. with a very special emphasis on the liver.
Digestion is a North-to-South Process, and to help strengthen it effectively we must naturally start at the top and work our way down. Most of us would assume that the first step to digestion is in the mouth, but you actually have to go a little bit higher than that. The brain. To activate salivary enzymes your brain must be engaged. That’s why your mouth waters when you smell something delicious. It’s getting the signal that food is coming its way, and saliva, in addition to chewing thoroughly, helps start the breakdown of food into useable nutrients. (You can read more here about the roles that our brain and mouth play in digestion) Once our food gets to the stomach, gastric juices go to work on proteins and then it gets passed on to the small intestine. Here is where the gallbladder kicks in. Bile is secreted to emulsify the fats in our food to assimilate the necessary elements, to be used effectively. Without good quality bile, fats are not digested properly. Fats are absolutely critical to the entire endocrine system. Our body cannot produce hormones without fats.
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Easy Quick Pickled Onions Recipe
Easy Quick Pickled Onions will instantly upgrade just about any dish. We love them on salads, sandwiches and wraps, burgers, pizzas, tacos, eggs and more.
With nearly 8 years of recipes, Tasty Yummies is filled with lots of main dishes and side dishes, special occasion recipes, treats, easy weeknight meals and loads of simple how-tos, but I am always trying to check back in with the staple foods that continuously make appearances in my own kitchen, that might be beneficial for you guys, too. The foods that are on repeat and that I continue to come back to. The ones that offer the most bang for the buck, in terms of flavor vs time involved to prepare.
Quick Pickled Onions are pretty high up on top of that list. Quick Pickled Onions, more specifically quick pickled red onions, these are something I love to have on hand for a pop of flavor and crunch whenever I need it. They are great on top of salads, wraps, burgers, shredded chicken or beef, tacos, pizzas, veggie bowls, on chili or soups and so on.
The nice part of Quick Pickled Onions is that they bring the crunch that fresh, raw onions do but the flavor is far more mellow and less intense. It doesn’t hang on your tongue the way that raw onions can.
