Evolution of my blog

My blog is slowly going to be changing to a combination of posts about my personal life as well as basic info about health, nutrition, nursing, etc. If you want to learn about whys and research to support the advice I'll be giving, this is not the blog to follow. My philosophy on health is based on a combination of my formal nursing education, my professional experience as a nurse, my observations of the world around us, and what I have learned on my own through reading blogs, research, and books (as well as through Jeromie reading those things and teaching me!). The way the I try to eat is based partially on paleolithic philosophy as well as primal philosophy. My knowledge of how the human body works, the correlations that are present between diet and western disease, and my own experience every day as a nurse have helped me immensely to be motivated to help people change. I disagree with a lot of politically correct nutrition and health advice. You'll see as I post more!

To start out, here's some basic health practices to follow (that may or may not surprise you). These are things I would do or already do.

1. Get as much sleep as you can each night. Ideally 9 hours or more. If you wake up before that amount naturally, try going to bed earlier (and see what happens!).

2. Eat: cage free/omega-3 eggs, pastured butter, coconut oil or coconut milk, olive oil, ghee, vegetables (preferably less starchy, for a list of starchier vegetables, Click Here), meat of any kind (although best is 100% grassfed and pastured, and you should be having plenty of red meat), aged cheese, heavy cream, full fat yogurt with nothing (and I mean NOTHING!) added to it, seafood (wild caught), nuts (not legumes), fruit (especially berries). Of course unless you have a dairy sensitivity. But make sure you do, first. Often people think they do but it's actually gluten, or worse, soy related.

3. Drink: water.

4. Don't eat: anything with more than 5 ingredients on the label! Most of these things you should be eating won't have actual labels at all (a good sign--means it's REAL food!). You're gonna have to read labels, which shouldn't be too much trouble since you shouldn't be buying that many things that even come with labels. No HFCS, gluten (which is in anything and everything with wheat or flour: bagels, pasta, whole grains, breads, pizza, flour tortillas), soy (including soy lecithin), no corn syrup or other corn derivatives such as carageenan, and guar gum. Absolutely no MSG (which can be disguised as hydrolyzed or autolyzed such-and-such. No vegetable oils whatsoever. No canola oil (too high in omega-6s), no corn oil, safflower, sunflower, etc oils. Unless it says "high-oleic." The one that is okay in the plant oil department is Olive oil. Minimal starch- just get it from vegetables only. No artificial sweeteners of any kind (Spenda, aspartame, sucralose, xylitol, mannitol, sorbitol). That means no more gum. Use rice, legumes, and all pseudograins sparingly (flaxseed, quinoa, buckwheat, spelt).

5. Yes, you can have bacon. Yes, you can have fatty cuts of meat. No you should not ever be thinking that this means it is EVER a healthy choice to be eating fast food burgers. It's not. Sure, you can have 'em every once in a while, but I don't recommend it as part of a healthy diet. And when you do go, no fries or soda!

Forget what the food pyramid says. You could probably swap out the oils/fats and the grains/carbs with each other and that would better represent the food pyramid that I think is the most natural and also healthiest way for homo sapien to eat. BUT, the right kind of fats/oils is essential, and easily missed. Tropical oils have had a bad rap because they are high in saturated fat. Well, you can forget the idea that saturated fat is bad for you. Just read this lipid scientist's book, Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Alternative to Trans Fats, by Mary Enig. She talks about saturated fat and the cells, the brain, the kidneys, the liver, the bones, and I could go on. It is so essential to the body, and getting in our diet is the only way to support essential functions. It doesn't clog your freakin' arteries!! I'm living proof you can INCREASE your HDL by eating more saturated fat. My HDL is 100. Excellent is considered >60. See this post as one of MANY examples: The Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Myth.

If you have "high cholesterol" (which doesn't necessarily mean anything unless you know if the LDLs they have measured were pattern A- good, or pattern B-bad) than the advice doctors will give you is probably not going to help nearly as much as my advice. And the last thing I will ever recommend to someone is to go on a medication ( a "statin") for cholesterol! Why don't I just shock you with electricity to give you a heart attack instead?! Statins cause SO much more harm than they do good, and that's not just in the cardiovascular system. Your bones will become brittle and it won't matter how much milk you drink (even though I don't recommend drinking any- That's just about the one thing that Skinny Bitch and I agree on).

Of course this advice may sound extreme to most. This has been a lifestyle that I have evolved to, and I will continue to improve my choices as I gain more knowledge. In no way is this advice going to cause you to have to eat "rabbit food" or starve- ever! Eat as much as you want, when you want! If you're eating high fat you will get too full to eat more than your body needs. Mother nature isn't stupid. If you're eating carbs, your stomach has to fill to the max so that the stretch receptors finally signal your brain that you're full; with fat, you brain gets a chemical signal when you release bile to digest the fat. You don't need to eat nearly as much volume, and yet you will feel full and energized and you won't be spiking your blood glucose just for it to fall 2-3 hours later and have you feeling tired and hungry again!!

Breakfast:

I don't recommend oatmeal, or any cereals. Make a couple of eggs instead. You'll have so much more energy and be fuller longer. Full fat yogurt (Fage for example) is another choice.

Lunch:

Salad, leftovers, cheese, fruit, avocado, olives, nuts! The possibilities are endless for lunch.

Dinner:

SeeThe Primal Blueprint Cookbook for a bunch of DELICIOUS ideas!!

Check out Jeromie's Food pictures of the things we make for dinner. They are posted on his facebook page under the Photos tab.