Asian Rice Noodle Salad

We started a new diet protocol that is a new way to group foods for fat loss.  Altshift.  It's mostly paleo and based on the research of one of our favorite "paleo guys" Jason Sieb.  It is working great for us and we really enjoy our shifts.  However it had us looking for low fat/high carbohydrate recipes that we hadn't eaten in years in our mostly high fat low carb approach to weight loss. We have found a few go to recipes for our "3 shift" and this is one of them.

It is a very fast flavorful dish that is;

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Low fat
• Low Calorie
• Low sugar
• Paleo-ish (Could omit rice noodles and use more veggies, and maybe leave out the hoisin)
• (Can be made vegan if you leave out the meat and fish sauce.)

I think I will be bringing this to many potluck bbq's this summer.

Asian Rice Noodle Salad;

Dressing;

• 1/2 Cup Wheat Free Tamari Soy Sauce or Coconut Aminos
• 1/2 Cup Rice Vinegar
• Juice of one Lime
• 3 Tbs finely minced Ginger (I always have some frozen and just microplane it from frozen.)
• 1 T Toasted Sesame Oil 
• 2 Tbs Gluten Free Hoisin Sauce 
• 1 T Garlic Chili Sauce
• 1-2 T Red Boat Fish (leave out if making it vegan)
• 1/4 Cup Powered Peanut Butter (for peanut butter flavor without fat, it's also great without it if you are strict paleo.)

I like to blend this all up with an immersion blender in a jar, but a blender or whisk would work too.

Salad:

• 8 Ounces Rice Noodles cooked as directed on package.
• 10 Ounce package of Coleslaw Salad Mix (You could chop your own but I'm all about fast one this one.)
• 10 Ounce package shredded Carrots  
• 1 or 2 Red Bell Peppers, thinly sliced
• 5 chopped Green Onions, thinly sliced
• One bunch of Cilantro, chopped
• Any other veggies you'd like to add.  We have added cucumber, shredded zucchini, sprouts, napa cabbage, mint, thai basil.
• 1-2 lbs lean protein, chopped if needed.  We use lean ground turkey or chicken, shredded chicken breast, or our favorite shrimp.  (Optional if making it vegan or a side dish.)

Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Add dressing.  Toss and serve. You can garnish with more cilantro, green onions, black sesame seeds and/or with Sriracha as desired.  It's great as leftovers too.   

Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Carrots

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/spice-rubbed-pork-tenderloin-with-roasted-baby-carrots-352090

My Recipe for Homemade Probiotic Deodorant.

I have been making my own deodorant for about 2 months now.  I even got Josh to start using it.  We are just amazed at how this stuff works.  Not to get to personal here, but I was having break through body odor with the department store brands.  After switching to this I have not had any smelliness at all. If probiotics are good for balancing your bacteria inside your body then why not on the outside too? This is a great way to get rid of a few more toxins in your house and on your body and it costs a fraction of what we were spending.  Plus really it's simple to make.

 Ingredients:
* 1/4 cup baking soda
* 1/4 cup arrowroot starch (or cornstarch)
* 3 shelf stable probiotic capsules. (This means that they are the ones that don't need to be refrigerated.)
* 6 tablespoons of coconut oil
* Optional: Essential oil of your choice.  I typically use 6 drops of tea tree oil (don't want to much of that one.)
* Container of your choice: an upcycled deodorant container (just be sure to get one with a solid bottom the cheap ones with holes will not do), a small jar, etc.

1. Mix together the baking soda and arrowroot.  Break open the capsules of probiotics and add them in.  I just do this in a glass measuring cup to make it easy to pour later.  Mix with a fork or small wisk.

2. Melt the coconut oil so it's liquid but not hot.  About 20 seconds in the microwave will do.  Pour it into the dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Add your oils next. Then pour it into your container.  We just an old Old Spice container with the top with the little holes because you can dispense just a small amount.  You don't need much at all of this stuff, in fact if you get too much you might have to wipe a little off.  We have also just hand applied it from a little jar.  Then I put it in the fridge to "set up" to solid.  

Note: Coconut oil has a melting point of about 76 degrees.  This is not a stick you can just throw in your gym bag and leave in the car.  Also if your house is warm and it's starts to melt you may need to adjust the amount of coconut oil, use the jar method, or keep it in the fridge (sounds kind of refreshing on a hot day). 

Also this is an oil so be sure to let it soak in before putting your clothes on.  I've never had any issue with it getting on my clothing though.  (Nothing a little dish soap wouldn't take care of if you do though.)

Let me know if you give it a try and how it works for you!

My great grandparents generation VS my generation.

I feel very privileged to have know 5 out of 8 of my great grandparents.  They lived long health lives for the most part.  When I think about them I always think about words like spunky and vivacious. These were people who lived their lives to the fullest.  And they never slowed down until their bodies gave up on them.  They didn't die of diseases, they died of old age.  They were farmers who lived off the land.

Now contrast this to my grandparents generation.  People of this generation are dying of terrible disease.  They retire and watch TV most of the day.  They are told that getting old should feel terrible like they do.  Aches and pains and disease are just part of life as you age.

Even worse then that look at my generation.  We are told that we are the laziest generation.  We are told that we have no work ethics.  We are told that being overweight, sick and tired is just part of life.  30 year olds are living on energy drinks just to get through the day. We are slaves to our DVR's and La-Z-Boy's.

Is this our fault?  I don't think so. We have been set up to fail.  We eating foods that are causing inflammation in our bodies.  Giving us disease earlier and earlier.  We are malnourished and overfed, making us feel like crap all the time.  Our government has allowed our food to become politics and then recommend that the majority of our calories come from the least nutrient dense sources.  It's perfectly acceptable in this day to eat cereal, milk and toast for breakfast. The majority of the vitamins from this meal are fortified, added back to the nutrient-less food to make you feel like you are having a healthy breakfast. The food guide that is recommended to us wants you to get the most servings of your day from grains, most of which have to be fortified to be "nutritious".

It's time to start living like our great grandparents again.  Get rid of the processed foods, and live off the land again.  Even if you can't have a farm, eat like you do.  Eat mostly pastured raised animals, eggs from chickens that eat bugs, and organic local fruits and veggies.  Have liver and onions like your grandparents did.  Eat the whole animal like they did. Spend time as a family cooking dinner together instead of time watching tv together. Don't be afraid to spend a little money on that which sustains your body.  (We spend less on food then any other generation before us!) And see that you can feel like they did.  Health, spunky, and vivacious well into your 90's.

Spaghetti-less Stew

Back before we were paleo we would quite often make spaghetti with whole grain noodles.  Once we went Paleo we started by making our same meat sauce and putting it over spaghetti squash or zucchini, dikon radish or butternut squash "noodles". But we decided that was just extra work and so we beefed up our sauce and eat it like a stew these days.  No need for anything extra, but you always could try some noodle replacements if you like.

• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup (2-3 carrots), chopped
• 1 cup celery (4-5 stalks), chopped
• 1 cup zucchini, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 1 yellow onion
• (Any other veggies as you like)
• 2 lbs ground meat. Beef, turkey, Italian sausage are all good choices, we usually mix and match.
• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
• 28 ounces diced tomatoes
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 2 tablespoons dried or 4 tablespoons fresh oregano
• 2 tablespoons dried or 4 tablespoons basil (Really just use fresh and put as much as you want in it!)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop all the veggies.

2. Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a pot over med-high to high heat.  Once heated add veggies. Saute until tender, about 15 mins.

3. While the veggies are sauteing, brown the meat in a separate pan, also over medium-high to high heat.  Cook until there is almost no more pink.  Add the Italian Seasoning.  And finish cooking until there is no more pink.

4. Add the meat to the veggies.

5. Add the rest of the ingredients, diced and crushed tomatoes, garlic, spices.  If using fresh basil leave it out until the end.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a slow simmer and let simmer for 30 mins.  Taste and season to taste.  Add fresh basil. 

My Paleo Journey (at 8 months)

Me on the Snake River at my heaviest

I’m not sure were to begin this story.  I think I will start last July 2012.  Our big extended family camping trip was coming up and I just couldn’t get excited for it.  In years past it was a highlight of our year. I just didn’t have the energy to do much of anything but survive.   Tasks such as packing and putting up the tent took everything I had.  My eyes were opened when I was rafting down the Snake River and I fell out of the raft and I had a panic attack.  I was unsure if I had the energy or strength to get myself back in the raft and out of the rapids.  Needless to say out of 14 or so trips the raft made down the river that summer, I only was on two of them.

A few weeks after getting home I just knew something had to change.  I was at my highest weight ever, 275.  11 years ago when I met my (future) husband Josh I was 135 pounds.  I was eating fairly healthy, exercising regularly and was in the best shape of my life.  When we got married 10 years ago I had some health and emotional problems that led me to nearly double my weight in a year.  By our first wedding anniversary I was probably 260 pounds.  Josh’s story is much the same having gained weight right along with me after marriage, but he can tell you his story.  We spend the next 9 years cycling through trying different weight loss plans, diets, exercise and then times of giving up and not caring, eating whatever, and gaining back anything we had lost.

Swimming at my heaviest

In the spring my husband and I had spent 8 weeks doing a weight loss challenge with some friends and family.  We counted calories everyday, tried to get some exercise in as many times a week as we could and we still only lost about 15 pounds each.  Pounds that didn’t stay off because as soon as it was over the scale started creeping back up.  I started searching the Internet for a meal plan with recipes and grocery lists.  I just didn’t feel like I had the energy to put anything together myself.  I wanted it laid out for me.  And I was ready to do something extreme if need be.  I came across an e-book called The Paleo Plan.  It had 6 weeks worth of meal plans, recipes and weekly grocery lists.  I bought it.  I read enough of it to get us started.  We cleaned out our fridge and our pantry of items that wouldn’t keep for the 6 weeks we were trying paleo. My husband would ask why we couldn’t eat a specific food and I had to just convince him to trust me because honestly I hadn't gotten far enough in the literature yet to even know why myself.  I was just going off the do's and don’t list. We just hit the ground running without really knowing why we were doing everything   We also just thought this was a bit crazy and certainly extreme and that after the six weeks were up we would just go back to trying to eat “healthy”.  But this was going to jump start our weight loss and get us on track.

For me the first day was good, the second ok, the third was pretty bad, but day four was my hell.  I felt like an addict.  I was jonsing for some major carbs.  I had no energy, I had a headache, I was itching and felt like I was going to jump right out of my skin.  I just layed in bed all night long.  I finally came out of our room, opened a bag of Frosted Mini Wheats and went to town.  I felt so much better and went to sleep.  I woke up day 5 feeling great.  And I never had a craving like that again.  In fact things got so easy it was kind of bizarre.  We were feeling great!  Like superheroes really.  We had energy to do what needed to be done.  We felt satisfied all the time.  We were eating like kings, some truly amazing food.  We started doing more research on why we were eating like this.  We couldn’t get enough.  We got books like Robb Wolf’s 'The Paleo Solution', we were looking on the Internet at sites like 'Mark’s Daily Apple', and finding podcasts like 'Latest in Paleo' to listen to.  We couldn't get enough information.

Three weeks into being paleo we celebrated our son, Max’s, first birthday.  Everyone was amazed at how much weight we had lost in such a short amount of time, but most crash diets will do that right?  After all, for almost 9 years we had been King and Queen of dieting, if there was a diet we had tried it, at least for a little while.  Our longest stint had been about 3 months on the South Beach diet, though most were probably closer to about a 6 week run.  And of course, the weight always came back. 

Max's First Birthday

While celebrating Max’s birthday we also decided to indulge in a piece of pizza and a half a cupcake.  We had been good for three weeks and it was our son’s first birthday after all.  This is when we had a huge light bulb moment.  Gluten didn’t get along with either one of us.  And after more research as to what gluten does to your body it made sense that when eating gluten you can't absorb nutrients properly and your body is constantly calling for more food to supply it with the nutrients it needs.  That is a big reason why for the first time in our lives we truly felt satisfied.  I don’t know if either of us has celiac.  And I don’t need to know, because we will never (knowingly) eat gluten again. 

After just eight months we have totally changed our lives.  Our Sundays used to be filled with sleeping in, junky food, & too much tv.  Now we spend Sundays at the farmers market getting our sunshine, family time, walking and buying healthy food.  We want to spend time playing at the park with our son, instead of time on the couch.  We are so much happier.  We are so much healthier.  We have each lost over 85 pounds in just 8 months, but the weight loss really does feel like a side effect, as the greatest thing has been the way we think & feel.

But perhaps the best thing of all is that our son will only know his parents as healthy and active.  He will grow up with healthy habits and with a love of real foods.  He loves his veggies & fruit, meat & healthy fat.  How many 1 year old's go crazy over a red bell pepper?  He will have memories of family dinners and being in the kitchen together preparing great food.   He will be happy & healthy too!

Size 26 dress - Size 12 dress
100 lbs lost!

Honey Ginger Apple Shredded Pork

Ingredients

• 2 lb pork roast
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 2 apples, cored and sliced
• ⅔ cup beef or chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 1 bay leaf

Instructions

1. Pull out your crockpot.
2. Rub spices & ginger into meat.
3. Add your broth, honey, then onions, then pork, then apples then garlic clove, and bay leaf.
4. Cover, cook for 8-10 hours on low or 6-8 hours on high.
5. Use tongs or a fork to shred your pork.