Last week I tried making my first cup of Bulletproof Coffee, and I have been enjoying it every day since.  I learned about this method of making coffee several months ago when I was researching fitness and natural healthy beverages to help with weight loss.  I found it on several Paleo diet websites and blogs.  To be honest with you, it sounded gross, so I never made it. Those ingredients are expensive, and I didn’t want to make something that possibly tasted gross and then have to throw it out.  Boy was I wrong!  This method of making coffee is delicious!

Bulletproof Coffee
(Makes 1 Serving.  Bulletproof Coffee from the Bulletproof Executive)

16 oz prepared coffee using Upgraded Bulletproof Coffee beans
2 Tbsp of grass fed unsalted butter (like Kerrigold)
2 Tbsp of high grade MCT oil (concentrated coconut oil)

Blend all in a blender until frothy.  Drink on an empty stomach.  Enjoy!

Basically, the method to make “bulletproof coffee” is to add grass fed butter and high grade MCT coconut oil (six times more potent than regular coconut oil, or even higher concentrations up to 18 times stronger than regular coconut oil) to organic “mold free” and low acid black coffee (easier on the digestive system), blend it all up and drink it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. 

At first, this method sounded “Yuck”!  It doesn’t sound good at all if you are just learning about this for the first time.   It is supposed to sustain you with energy for 4 to 5 hours until you are ready for lunch.  The point of this coffee is to continue to help the body burn fats for fuel early in the morning, as it did while you were sleeping, and feed the brain with healthy fat for maximum cognitive processes.  The cells of the brain only use fat and oxygen in the blood stream for fuel.  When you add in carbs, the body sends out insulin to regulate the sugar in the blood stream.  This often results in brain fog for many people.  Bulletproof Coffee is supposed to feed the brain and help you avoid the pitfalls of carbs for breakfast.

The Bulletproof Executive guy, Dave Asprey, invented Bullet Proof Coffee.  He has all the scientific proof of how good it is for you.  Could he know something I don’t know?  Perhaps.  I think after seeing his results, and the results of numerous people who have used this method, that he must have tapped into some biological secrets for improving health.  He was able to raise his IQ by 20 additional points, lower his weight by 100 lbs without dieting or exercise, and overall improve his health with a few improvements or “upgrades” to his food consumption and lifestyle. You can read more about Dave Asprey on his website and he sells all the UPGRADED ingredients for you to make the best cup of coffee too. 

Dave Asprey has also developed a FREE Bulletproof Food Sense app for your iphone to help you identify foods you are sensitive too.  Learning what foods you are sensitive too by monitoring your biological and psychological reactions to them, and reducing or eliminating them from your diet can potentially help you have a healthier life.  Dave refers to this process of figuring out your body as “bio hacking”.  He has learned to “bio hack” his own body and maximize his physical and mental potential. 


Just My 2 Cents: 

Dave Asprey is an interesting person, and I am in the process of learning more about him and his research.  I don’t know if I agree with everything he has to say, so I am not recommending his teaching and videos to the homeschool community.  But I am willing to learn and investigate it more before I decide to follow much of his advice beyond his coffee method.  I would encourage you to investigate it too before just diving in to all of his recommendations.  I have seen a lot of people report that they incorporated his suggestions with a Paleo eating plan and it helped them loose weight and regain their health and reach their peak performance.  My personal hesitation is that I am concerned first and foremost if he is or is not a follower of Christ and that his teachings could contradict the scriptures.  He may or may not be concerned with faith when it comes to faith in God, and his place of man in relationship to God and acceptance of Christ.  That is his personal choice.  But from what I have read so far, I think he may have a mix of New Age and Humanism in his teachings, so I want to proceed with caution.   Lets get one thing straight right now…Man is not God!   I don’t want to follow a man who might be really smart, but is spiritually lost because of his rejection of God and worship of the human body.  It is too soon for me to decide if some of what I am reading leans toward this.  He is very smart, he is an athlete, and he is a scientific researcher on the human body.  So it stands to reason that a lot of his recommendations are slanted toward athletes and body builders, etc..  I think there is a lot of scientific merrit to his research and its application to the human body in what I have read so far.  So I plan to read and learn more, with my usual caution, and always comparing his advice to scripture and prayer.  What you do is up to you, but this is just my word of caution and my 2 cents!


My Experience:

For me to enjoy coffee, I have to put in lots of milk, cream, and sugar.  I want sweet creamy flavor!!! Give me cream, and give me either vanilla or chocolate !!!  My favorite coffee drinks have lots of chocolate!  So since I know lots of sugar is not so good for me, I usually just go without coffee and only splurge on it maybe once a week or less.

Though I didn’t think Bulletproof Coffee was going to be something I would like, and I had already formed my opinion about it, I started seeing “bulletproof coffee” notes showing up on some of my friends blogs.  They were starting their day with it.  They are not athletic.  They are not Paleo die hards, and many have never even heard about the Paleo diet. Could it be the same “bulletproof coffee” I was reading about from Dave Asprey?  My immediate thoughts were “how can they drink this flavorless, oily brew and enjoy it?”  “How can they drink this every day and still loose weight?” every time I saw it mentioned.

I am slowly trying to make adjustments in my nutritional habits.  I have made huge strides overall this year towards better health for me and my family.  Check out some of my Walk and Talk Wednesday posts for healthy fitness lifestyle tips. But recently my weight is not budging at this time.  I lost 17lbs when I did the 28 day Fa
st Metabolism Diet (FMD) challenge a few months ago, but I have not been able to repeat that success since.  I do not know why. 

A lot of my blogging friends have used the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) program with ongoing success.  So I have recently purchased the Trim Healthy Mama book to see what it is all about.  I am still following the FMD recommendations as I read through the 600+ pages of THM.  I am impressed how they encourage the “Whole Mama” in every area of your life (spiritually, physically, mentally, intimately).  I am making even more adjustments in my food choices.  I’ll tell you more about the benefits of these different food programs in future stories. But for now, I am still in the learning phase and don’t have it all figured out.  While I am reading the big book, I am trying out some of their recipes especially for beverages as I know I don’t drink enough fluids.  I am continually looking for easy make beverages to add to my day.  I am learning to like a few of their suggestions such as NuNaturals Pure White Stevia to sweeten foods without the use of sugar. 

So I gave some more serious thought to this bulletproof method.  I have added coconut oil to my coffee and hot tea before, because it is recommend by the Weston A Price Foundation and Mary Enig from Eat Fat Loose Fat for good healthy habits.  I learned about this method over 10 years ago and love adding coconut oil to my hot herbal tea.  I normally make hot herbal tea, 1 tsp coconut oil, and 1 tsp+ raw honey.  The coconut oil does rise to the top, and it took a while to get used to drinking hot tea this way in the beginning.   It is good, satisfying, and the oil slick on top of the tea doesn’t bother me if I use about a teaspoon. 

Now add the addition of butter too?   This was a bit of a dilemma for me.  I have always enjoyed adding butter into my cooking.  It is healthy and nutritious and the Weston A Price Foundation has a huge amount of scientific research to support using it.  But I did agree to abstain from dairy while on the FMD.  The FMD does not encourage the use of dairy while on their program, and it was really hard for me to follow that protocol.  But since I am reading the THM and slowly switching some things over, they do recommend some grass fed dairy, such as butter, Greek yogurt, and cottage cheese, etc. in moderation.  With a little more thinking on this, I decided that since butter is basically cream with the whey removed, and I believe butter is good for you anyways, I might be able to drink this in my coffee.  I have made butter many times.  It is the same every time.  To make fresh butter, I take fresh cream, shake it up or mix it up until the fat and whey (protein and water) separates.  Then I drain off the whey and wallah, I have butter!!!  I have also whipped cream for desert before and let it go to long and made butter by accident too.  So why not use butter in coffee if it is just a form of condensed cream?  The idea of adding butter to a hot drink became more and more appealing to me when I looked at it from this point of view.


Revisions:

My REVISIONS and experiments I did to make the “bullet proof coffee” method into a no carb and low carb comfort food and very satisfying are posted below.  First of all I sweetened it with a carb free natural sweetener.  Second I am using a good quality organic virgin coconut oil instead of MCT.  It is what I have on hand at this time.   



I  also reduced a serving to 1 cup rather than the original 2 cups in Dave Asprey’s recipe.  If you want 2 cups then just double the ingredients.  I call it the “Sustain Latte”, or just “Sustain” for short.  Lattes are comfort food, kind of like desert, and this reminds me of that. 

Also because I don’t want to go for 5 hours without eating, I am only drinking one cup in the morning.  I am trying to heal my metabolism and thyroid, and eating every two to three hours is my goal at this time.  So I am just consuming one cup of this each morning on an empty stomach and waiting two hours or so before I eat.  One morning I went ahead and drank it with my breakfast, but found it really filled me up more than I wanted.  This was a Phase 3 FMD breakfast of boiled eggs, bacon, califlower hashbrowns, and blueberries with my Sustain Mocha Latte.



I have tried drinking a cup of it in the late afternoon occasionally as a desert too.  When I make it in the afternoon, I add an additional 1/4 of a cup of unsweetened almond milk to the mix.  Prepared either way, this would make a great cup of coffee to serve your afternoon guests for tea time too.

If your are doing the THM program, this drink would be used for S beverages and S snacks (S is for satisfying).  I still have a ways to go learning the THM program, so I don’t know if this drink can be used during other meal types.  There are several meal and snack types in the THM and it is a big learning curve for me, so I will defer to others with more knowledge about it than me until I understand the program fully.  I have read a few chapters and I hope to finish the book in the next week or so.  I want to start implementing the THM program soon.   

If you are doing the FMD program, this drink would be used for Phase 3 of the week (Each week has 3 phases.  P1 is two days that focus on unrefined carbs and lean proteins, P2 is two days that focus on lean proteins, and P3 is three days that focus on healthy fats in addition to low glycemic foods and protiens in the diet). 

If you are on a Paleo program, or a Paleo / Primal program, this drink can be used everyday.


My One Goal:

I was determined last two weeks to avoid sugar so I could reduce my blood insulin levels and reduce my cravings for sweets.  I tried to avoid all added sugar and refined carbs in any form in my diet.   I have not been perfect and have had a few sweet treats.  But overall, I have made a lot of progress toward this goal.  I decided if I could sweeten the bulletproof coffee without sugar, and still give it flavor, without anything artificial, and yet not break the rules of this one goal to live without added sugar, I would try it. 
 
Now I can tell you, this “bulletproof coffee method” is a game changer!  It is a real comfort food!  It is helping me reach my goal.  I have drank it several times already the past two weeks.  It tastes better than Starbucks!  It really has sustained me on the mornings I have incorporated it into my day.  Sometimes I am rushed in the mornings to get the kids and dad fed, and start our schoolwork for day.   I don’t always get to eat first thing when I get up (even though this is recommended by the Fast Metabolism Diet), and it might be 10 am or later before I get to eat breakfast.  By then it is almost time to start making lunch for the rest of the fam
ily and I often feel defeated by TIME!

I drank the original “bulletproof coffee” recipe for several days adding only NuNaturals stevia to sweeten it, and I have fell in LOVE with coffee!  I have also tried adding Just Like Sugar chicory and it is even more awesome with no aftertaste.  My husband is a purist and likes his coffee VERY black.  He agreed to try the coffee too, and he likes the bulletproof coffee with just black coffee and butter.  He did not prefer the coconut oil or stevia sweetener.  He said bulletproof coffee tastes like cappuccino from a gourmet coffee house. 

You can read more about Chicory and about Stevia as sweeteners from Wikipedia (the online encyclopedia).  Here are pictures of the brands I am using:

 

So far, I have made several comforting and sustaining lattes with the “bulletproof coffee method”, several different flavors and they are ALL delicious and carb free and sugar free!  You can adjust the sweetness to your liking.  You can also create delicious sugar free and carb free ice cream by using your blended coffee mix and freezing it in ice cube trays, then re-blending until it makes ice cream.  Or use the liquid blended coffee in an ice cream maker too. But I just use the blender. I let the coffee cubes just start to thaw so the will blend nicely.  Or if I am in a hurry, I add just a little water to get it to blend easily in to a frappe!  If you want to, add some coconut milk or nutmilk to make it even more creamy. This is so delicious!  I just love coffee ice cream!  If you are like me, you just have to give this method a try!



Sustain Latte
Makes 1 serving (multiply if you want more servings).

6 oz coffee
1 Tbsp to 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (grassfed butter has more nutrient value)
1 tsp coconut oil (MCT coconut oil has more concentrated nutrient value)
1/8 tsp Nunaturals Pure White Stevia powder or 1 tsp Just Like Sugar (ground chicory root)

(Optional: 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk changes it from carb free to low carb with 1 gram carb coming from fiber.  It also makes it even more delicious and creamy.  I am leaving it out in my morning cup to prolong the body’s fat burn, but adding it to my afternoon cup to boost my metabolism and level of satisfaction).

Blend together in a blender until frothy, about 1 minute. Drink hot, or pour over ice and drink cold. Delicious both ways.




Vanilla Sustain Latte
Makes 1 serving (multiply if you want more servings).

6 oz coffee
1 Tbsp to 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (grassfed butter has more nutrient value) 
1 tsp coconut oil (MCT coconut oil has more concentrated nutrient value)
1/8 tsp Nunaturals Pure White Stevia powder or 1 tsp Just Like Sugar (ground chicory root)
1 tsp vanilla extract

(Optional: 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk changes it from carb free to low carb with 1 gram carb coming from fiber.  It also makes it even more delicious and creamy.   I am leaving it out in my morning cup to prolong the body’s fat burn, but adding it to my afternoon cup to boost my metabolism and level of satisfaction).

Blend together in a blender until frothy, about 1 minute. Drink hot, or pour over ice and drink cold. Delicious both ways.


Mocha Sustain Latte
Makes 1 serving (multiply if you want more servings).

6 oz coffee



1 Tbsp to 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (grassfed butter has more nutrient value)
1 tsp coconut oil (MCT coconut oil has more concentrated nutrient value)
1/8 tsp Nunaturals Pure White Stevia powder or 1 tsp Just Like Sugar (ground chicory root)
1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract
1 tsp or more of natural or raw cocoa powder (raw cocoa has more nutrient value)



Here you can see how the oil and butter start to rise to the top of the hot coffee before blending them together.



Blend together in a blender until frothy, about 1 minute.



Drink hot, or pour over ice and drink cold. Be sure it is well blended if pouring over ice as the fat in the drink will solidify.  This mocha latte is satisfying and delicious both ways.



(Optional: 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk changes it from carb free to low carb with 1 gram carb coming from fiber.  It also makes it even more delicious and creamy.  I am leaving it out in my morning cup to prolong the body’s fat burn, but adding it to my afternoon cup to boost my metabolism and level of satisfaction).

I plan to post more recipe variations like pumpkin spice and chai and more pictures soon.  Stay tuned as I share my health and fitness journey stories along the way!

Whether you buy Dave’s “upgraded” Bulletproof ingredients for your cup of coffee, or make do with similar quality ingredients available locally as I have done, I think you will agree his bulletproof method of using unsalted butter and coconut oil to make a creamy frothy and super healthy gourmet coffee at home is AWESOME!
 
Finally, I can enjoy a great cup of creamy comforting sweet coffee and I don’t feel guilty about drinking it!   It really does sustain me, it is yummy, and I hope it results in healthy weight loss too.   I am happy, happy, happy!


This post will be linked up with:
Raising Homemakers
Sharing Time
Change 3 Things Challenge 
Walk and Talk Wednesday


 

                                WEEK 10 
                   Carbohydrates & Glucose

This week the kids and I spent a lot of time reading and renewing our understanding of how the body uses the food and nutrients we feed it.  All week long the kids and I have discussed if certain food choices were wise. I want my kids and myself to know details and proof about nutrition and health.  I don’t usually believe what I am told just because somebody said it, and I want my kids to have common sense and think beyond the food hype that is common in our culture.  Dietary advice needs to be backed by solid, historically true, scientific evidence.

Now why would I say historically true?  Because much of the “science” and the foods we consume today are recent modern inventions and recent history, not historically true for the human race.  Much of the “science” is tainted by the profits of big food conglomerates who want the public to believe their “man made” products are safe to eat.  Much of the science is also used to get USDA and FDA approval to sell a profit making agenda to the public.  Those are motives that don’t set right with me. 

I believe I have a right to eat natural food that my ancestors ate for a healthy vigorous life, not a man made substitute to tempt me into a food addiction and make somebody rich.  I once heard someone say that every human being has an inherent right to healthy food, safe housing, clean water, and freedom and these basic elements of life should be easily acquired and not cause one to go into poverty to get them while a few become rich from controlling access to it.  This sounds like a very good place to be to me.

If it has been historically true that humans have consumed foods that were low in carbohydrates and high in protein and fats such as meat, fresh butter, fresh milk, fresh eggs, fruits, and fermented / soaked seeds (nuts, seeds, grains) and fermented starches (vegetables especially root vegetables) for 6,000 years, and it has was nourishing for them.  Why would or should I believe the current food hype who say to avoid meat, eggs, fresh milk, and butter, but instead eat grains, artificial foods, soy based products,  “egg beaters”, skim milk, soy milk, and margarine for your health?   Obviously, with the evidence of increased health problems in our country, those who perpetuate this food hype are WRONG!  Somebody told them, and they are repeating it, and modern industry is getting rich on marketing it, but it is not true!  Humans are becoming SICK and FAT, because of our “modern” diet.

The kids and I studied about how cells in our body use two main dietary sources of fuel for energy, both glucose and fat.  The body does not have to have dietary glucose because it can create its own glucose from fats and protiens.  But in our modern culture, the first “go to” fuel for the body has become glucose.  It is quickly metabolized and excess glucose and dietary fat is then stored away for future use.  However if dietary glucose is not available, the human body processes dietary fat and stored fat into fuel for energy. 

The body turns many things you eat into glucose through a metabolic process.  You might eat glucose directly in foods, but other carbohydrates are turned into glucose too.  So if you eat any grain, sugar, honey, most fruits, starchy vegetables, legumes, etc. these things all get turned into glucose in the body.  They all turn to glucose at different rates and in different amounts. 

There are two main scales of measure used to determine carbs.  The Glycemic Index or GI to measure the amount of carbohydrates in a food, and the more accurate Glycemic Load or GL measures the carbohydrates in the food and the load of carbs it places on the body.  The GL is a more accurate measure and is used by scientists, but rarely used by dieticians. The formula to figure GL is

GL = (GI x amount of carbohydrate) divided by 100

Measuring carbohydrates in foods has very little to do with whether they are healthy food choices or not.  Instead it is a piece of the puzzle of human nutrition.  It does not show you how much vitamins, minerals, fats, protein, etc. are in a certain food.  It is only a reflection of how quickly the human body turns the carbohydrates into glucose.  Glucose in moderation is not a bad thing.  Glucose in excess of what the body can manage is a deadly thing.  Measuring carbohydrates can help you make better choices to choose foods that are nutrient dense and low in carbohydrates for your dietary needs.

Image by Dean Madden, Source from http://www.scienceinschool.org/2006/issue1/diabetes

During my research this week, I read that an ideal human diet would include a significantly less amount of carbohydrates than the standard American diet.  Hum. . . significantly less. . . what exactly does that mean? 

The Standard American Diet:

                                                        Image source mypyramid.gov

Most Americans consume over 300 grams of carbs a day.  Current government suggestions on a 2,000 calorie diet are 300 grams, and 375 grams of carbs on a 2,500 calorie diet.  They are also encouraged to eat a small portion of lean protein, and very little fat.   Just check the nutrition label on the food you are eating.  If it is a big enough label, such as those on a box of cereal, it will show you the carbs, protein, fat, sodium, etc in the food and also on the label it will include the government’s current recommendations.  

Even though the government has recommended this level of consumption, everything I am reading points to this amount of carbohydrate consumption putting a strain on our bodies.  It is way to high to consume on a daily ongoing basis and is making Americans very unhealthy and prone to disease. 


Image from WebMed Image source and more info about diabetes

Consumption of a high carbohydrate diet puts extreme stress on the pancreas to produce insulin to regulate the glucose levels in the blood stream.  Insulin regulates the amount of glucose allowed through the cell membrane.  Eventually the cells through out the entire body become insensitive to insulin or insulin resistant.  The body keeps sending more and more insulin so the cells are not overloaded all at once with the fuel, and eventually the cells do not recognize the insulin, the pancreas may get out of balance, reduce, or even stop producing insulin, because the whole system is out of whack.  Too much glucose, too much insulin, and not enough insulin can all cause severe bodily harm.  A person eventually will become diabetic.  Over time the condition known as diabetes will continue to deteriorate the body, and cause additional problems such as kidney failure, blindness, neuropathy, and may even kill you.  Please read the article from Science In School for more information about diabetes or do an internet search yourself. The amount of information available is mind bogling, but it is doing little to stem the tide of this wide spread illness.

This high amount of glucose in the body from too many carbohydrates in our diet also lowers the immune system’s ability to fight disease, specifically the white blood cells become disabled.  As high blood glucose is hindering the immune system, damaging the pancreas, and causing insulin resistance, it is actually feeding pre-cancerous and cancerous cells.  Cancerous cells consume glucose for fuel.  Unless a person who has cancer is able to remove it with surgery, chemically kill the cancer with chemo and radiation, or stop feeding the cancer, it will continue to grow.  But the good news is that many end stage metastatic cancers can be stopped if the cancer no longer has a food source.  If glucose is cut off, then the cancer dies.   Wow, knowledge of this could and should be life changing for all of us.  Please read the article by Dr. Mercola to learn more about glucose and cancer.

Ideally, the amount of carbohydrates we consume should be somewhere between 100 to 150 grams a day for maintenance and 50 and 100 for weight loss and healing.  There are a few disease conditions such as cancer and epilepsy that may require even less carbohydrates to heal.   Check out this chart below from Let’s Get Primal and be sure to check out their article for more information.

                                                Image source Let’s Get Primal

The actual amount of carbohydrates each person needs is an individual number for each person based on weight, lean body mass, insulin resistance, how much protein and fat are in our diet, and other factors.  A healthy diet should also include carb re-feeding days too if you are athletic. So consuming carbs of 50 to 100 grams for several days in a row, then include a day when the carb consumption is up higher so the body can re-boot and repair muscles that were overused during athletic events.  I also read about intermittent fasting where you spend one day a week not eating breakfast, (or not eating breakfast and lunch) and only consuming supper that day.  This day of partial fasting gives the body rest and also resets several metabolic processes.  Be sure to read Dr. Mercola’s article about intermittent fasting to learn more. 

If you consume below 50 grams of carbs a day, you should be monitored through urine ketosis tests and blood work through a physician for the safety of vital organs, especially the liver.  There are many popular diets out there today that are promoting low carbs below 40 on an ongoing daily basis, and these should only be done with a doctor’s supervision for good reason.  

I am GUILTY of over-consumption of carbohydrates.  I grew up eating a high carb diet, we had things made with grains and starch at every meal (bread, gravy, biscuits, pudding, potatoes, pasta, etc).  In my 20’s I continued this high carb lifestyle.  Eventually in my 30’s I began to learn the importance of protein and fats and other nutrients in the diet, and changed my eating habits to include nutrient dense foods.  But these changes have not been enough to help me be at a healthy weight.

Now I am making strides to change my family’s nutrient balance even more.  I am currently consuming close to 200 to 240 carbs a day, and about 2,200 calories.  My carbohydrate intake is too high.  I am overweight.  My body has maintained my current weight (I am not saying how much) since having my last child.  It seems that toward the end of my pregnancies I gain weight that I keep even after the baby is born and I never get back to my prepregnancy weight.   I am using all the calories I am consuming, so my weight is stable, but I am not yet loosing weight which is my goal.  I am still nursing my youngest son who is 14 months old.  I generally nurse all my kids until they are around 2 years, though my daughter was 3 when she finally weaned.  Nursing requires around 500 calories a day or so, and I don’t want to jeopardize my milk flow by reducing too many calories for the sake of loosing weight at this time.  I don’t know for sure how much carbohydrates the children are consuming, except that I do know it is more than me.  They eat a lot of snacks that are high in carbs.  I am hoping by talking to them about their food choices, and providing them with nutrient dense foods, I can steer them better into eating nutrient dense foods that are lower in carbs so they are not overloading every day.

But instead of drastically reducing calories on a diet, I want to change the majority of the calories we are consuming from carbohydrate based to fat based.  I want to offer more fat as a fuel.  I want to nourish my family with good fats such as avocado, eggs, coconut oil, butter, cream, etc. pastured and grass fed meats, fresh raw dairy, and adequate amount of high quality proteins from grass fed beef and dairy,  pastured free range poultry, and wild caught fish.

A lot of material I read said to not jump into a low carb diet, but to slowly wean your body down as you increase protein and fat intake.  Wow, this is so radical!  To burn fat, you must eat fat in addition to reducing the carbs.  I need to train the body to use fat as fuel instead of using glucose for fuel.  This is done by reducing the glucose and allowing the body to consume fat.  If done incorrectly, in addition to possibly causing organ and liver damage, you can also induce your body to store fat, and burn muscle for fuel instead of the goal of burning fat.  My goal is definitely to burn fat, so I am going more slowly and making small changes to reduce my carbohydrate intake.  I will share more about this next time, but fats are a key player in this whole nutrition puzzle.  I will keep a food journal that tracks all three areas: carbs, proteins, and fat.

I will be writing more about this and sharing lots of links to research and articles soon.  So stay tuned for much more.  I think you will be amazed how easily we, and the last two or three generations, have been mislead by dietary information through food conglomerates, food manufacturers, education and schools, health care, grocery stores, tv, resturants, etc.   If you want to learn more about historically healthy foods, and how to prepare them, please check out the Weston A Price Foundation.

Disclaimer:   I am sharing my opinion about my own experience and lifestyle choices and my experience may be different from yours.  I am not a doctor.  Please consult your personal health care provider before changing your diet or routine as these choices may have an impact on your life.   Please use wisdom when making any changes in your lifestyle. 

Family Fitness Activity Journal

This week we had bad weather on the night of our Cardio class so we did not go.  I just will not drive in fog in the dark on the highway in the mountains.  It is not safe.  I have never seen more wrecks than I have since living here near this stretch of highway near Asheville North Carolina.  The evenings during the rest of the week got busy and we skipped the Y.  We also did not do our T-Tapp video.  Why?  I don’t know.  However, we played a lot of indoor games though and made it to the park too. 

One game the kids play inside that gives them some physical movement is army crawl tag.  They have to crawl around with their bellies or hips touching the floor as they use their legs and arms to scoot along.  They laugh so hard and get a lot of exercise playing this game.  They also jumped on a mini indoor trampoline a few minutes each day.  I love having a mini trampoline in the house.  You can buy an inexpensive one for about $25.      

We spent some time enjoying the great outdoors at a local park on one of the few nice days we had.  Below are pictures from Saturday at our favorite local park, Lake Julian in Arden, North Carolina.  It is about a 25 minute drive from our house.  We picked up some lunch and had a picnic and we spent an afternoon feeding the ducks, geese, fish, sea gulls, and playing together.

Be sure to check out the story about our trip to Lake Julian this week and see some awesome pictures of birds, boats, fresh water clams, and more.  This was a great physical activity to do together, and a fun learning adventure.

Goals For Next Week

My goals for next week are to continue my research about nutrition and the human body, reduce my carbohydrate intake, increase my intake of healthy protein and healthy fats, take the cardio dance class at the Y, play with my kids outdoors, complete two sessions of T-Tapp, and begin some form of strength training twice this week, create healthy meals for my whole family, pray and read the bible daily.

Further The Learning With Your Kids:

For a fun activity with the kids this week, look through your fridge, freezer, and cabinets at nutrition labels and discuss the nutrients listed with the kids. Also try having the kids make a nutrition label with a free online nutrition label maker.
 

This post will be linked up with:
Raising Homemakers
Domestically Divine
Sharing Time

                Walk and Talk Wednesday Link Up

Please join us on our Walk and Talk Wednesday Family Fitness Journey. You can read other Walk and Talk stories from January and February and all our friends who have linked their stories and follow along on the journey.

You are welcome to leave your story in the comment section below, or if you write stories about family fitness, nutrition, weight loss, etc. on your web site you can link up. The blog hop link is open all month long, so link up as many fitness stories as you want all month long. Just be sure to grab this story link and include it somewhere on your post so others can find the link back here to read more stories of encouragement. You can also grab the blog hop code and place it at the bottom of your story too. Thank You!