What is your “go to meal”

by | Jan 10, 2013 | Food Choices, High Protein Diet, Low carb diet, Meat Products | 0 comments

Here is a copy of the post on fattoskinny.net that I have responded to regarding meal choices

jetfans’ go-to meal:

What is your “go to Meal ” when you have time to make.
mine is:
Friend eggplant and chicken.
I season the eggplant, with several spices: salt, garlic pepper and hot pepper. then fry it, until it becomes soft.
Now for the chicken: One chicken breast cut into cubes, seasoned with all above spices,  and cooked the same way.
Then I mixed the two together and enjoy. Kind of like a mid. east dish  
Taste really good.

My go-to meal:

After reading through this topic for only two or three minutes, I wasn’t sure whether I should comment or go on and start cooking. But I guess that’s the problem when you read a topic like this just before lunchtime.

But seriously, my go-to meal is quite often bacon and eggs. Plain and simple or sometimes I put cheese on top of the bacon which is equally delicious.

Mmmmnnn….. now I really am going to have to start cooking.

Cheers,

Mark

Pork (bacon)

by | Jan 10, 2013 | Food Choices, High Protein Diet, Low carb diet | 0 comments

This a recent post on forum.lowcrber.org that I have commented on about meat products

StuartB Wrote:

I was reading the site “Perfect Health Diet,” which is a title to be loathed, where the author, Paul Jaminet, said that eating pork causes cancer, MS, fatty liver disease, and obsessive reading of Animal Farm. Because I’m impressionable, even at my age, I immediately thought I should give up bacon, because I have a fatty liver. This depresses me somewhat, as there are few things I love more in this world now than eating my morning bacon.  He said that studies show that regular pork is worse than cured pork. Apparently, because of the way pigs are kept in industrial farming (not able to move around) and what they are fed (grains) that these hogs are swimming with Omega 6, which I found out only yesterday are bad!  We eat the pig and lots of this Omega 6 is transferred into us, unless of course you have a free-range source. What do you other carnivores think about this pork bashing?

My Response:

In respect to factory farmed meat, I’m quite inclined, unusually, to agree with Mr. Jaminet. From many of the studies I have read, the type and quality of the food given to factory reared animals is appalling. When you add in to that the fact that they are almost daily marinated in hormones, plus there is a high proportion of GMO in their food. It probably is no surprise to you that I never now eat anything other than naturally reared meat. 

More specifically, onto the subject of bacon, one of the things that many people overlook is that bacon from pastured pigs contains a healthy amount of saturated, as well as mono saturated fat. Now, most of these fats consist of oleic acid which is the type so valued in olive oil, but also, it contains a healthy amount of palmitoleic acid which as you may, or may not know, has antimicrobial properties. It also contains so very healthy fat soluble vitamin D and a superior type of vitamin E which acts as an antioxidant. Now, I spend a lot of my time in France which means that I have easy access to traditionally reared and cured pork, bacon and other meats from the countryside around me. The good thing is these traditional ways of growing or producing pork and other meats have also transferred across the pond and you can find them in the States, in Australia, in New Zealand and in the UK. In fact, anywhere where good, old- fashioned animal husbandry and dedication to quality still remain impart of the farming population.

One thing I have found, though through eating naturally-reared meat products, is not only do they taste better, but it’s almost as if your body acknowledges their high and nutritional value and you find, you don’t need as much of it to be satisfied. So, while it may be a little bit more expensive, in the long run, it can work out to be the same cost or maybe even a bit cheaper to enjoy naturally grown, nutritious and delicious food.

Hope that helps,

Mark

I’m Starting Again

by | Jan 9, 2013 | Food Choices, High Protein Diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

This is a post on fattoskinny.net that I have commented on regarding weight loss

Itsoversugar’s post:

I’ve tried FTS before and did not stay on it for long. Here I am, many, many months later, basically the same weight I was before. I’m ready to do something about it now. Every year I make a resolution to lose weight. I’m not going to do that this time. What I really want to do is gain health. And if weight loss results in getting healthier, then I’ll be pleased.

I’m going out to do a grocery hall in just a bit, so I have some healthy foods to eat. Right now, I’m eating an egg, fried in butter and topped with a little cheese to hold me over until my errands are done.  I’ll post my menu for the day when I get back.  I’m so excited to be back!!

***************

This was my answer:

That’s a really great shopping list you got there, practically not a carbohydrate in sight, well, apart from the Kool Aid and the sugar for the family.

I used to have a problem getting good meat and so forth until I tried some of the mail-order meat producers especially the ones that produce the grass-fed beef and other naturally raised animals for the table. I found that their quality of meat is far superior to that I could find locally and because I could buy it in bulk, it turned out to be cheaper as well and oftentimes carriage was free or included in the price.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Ladies and Gentlemen over 60 Continued

by | Jan 9, 2013 | Carbs, Fat Loss, Food Choices | 0 comments

This is a post from Pam, a 62-year-old lady, about carbs which I have replied to over at forum.lowcarber.org

Pam’s post:

I will soon be 62 and still find my weight struggles continue. I have done LC over and over for the past 20 years. I am successful when I limit my carbs to 30 or less/day, but I find it difficult not to give in to the carbs when I’m stressed or happy or when the wind is blowing…I need some support and encouagement as I’m sure many of us do. The older I get the easier it is to resign myself to being overweight. But I know for the sake of my health it is more important than ever.

***************

My advice:

Hi Pam!

Yes, I know exactly how you feel. I find it hard to keep away from the carbs as well and have done, really, ever since I started low carbing myself, but after a while, I realized this was as much down to habits as anything else so I started to have a look at what these habits of mine were and how I could break them.

 I believe the answer is actually quite simple, if I didn’t have carbs in the house then I couldn’t eat them. So what I did was in effect, was change the way I shopped. I no longer bought any items that had high carb to them thinking “I can resist, and anyway other people in the household would like to eat them”; instead I left them in the shop which is exactly where they should be rather than in my cupboard only later to be in my stomach.

So my advice would simply be “if you don’t buy it then you won’t have it at home to eat it”.

Hope that helps,

Mark

How To Avoid Regaining Your Lost Fat

by | Jan 8, 2013 | Cravings, Fat Loss, Sensible Eating | 0 comments

Here is a recent post at Foodblogforum.com that I have responded to regarding fat loss and how to avoid gaining it back again

Grace wrote:

How To Avoid Regaining Your Lost Fat Losing weight is one of the toughest tasks. You have to sweat out to lose a considerable amount of weight. In fact, sweating out is not the only thing you have to do, you may have to do many other things as well. If you managed to lose weight, then you should consider yourself lucky and you should thank yourself for putting the required effort and time.

However, you could not afford to relax after shedding your body weight. You should not consider the weight loss forever. After losing the weight, you may regain the same. The chance of regaining is very high as well. Then, is there any way out to avoid regaining the lost weight? Yes, if there are ways to lose weight then ways are there to stop regaining the lost weight.

***************

I responded:

Grace is right, we can’t afford to relax after we’ve lost a lot of weight. In fact, we should remain vigilant and still eat the same way that we ate in order to lose the weight in the first place. After all, like she says, the chance of regaining weight is quite high if we go back to the old ways of eating, that’s obviously given.

But frankly, there is something that we should all look at. That is simply, why did we gain weight in the first place. If that hasn’t been tackled then it will be far too simple for us to get back into old habits. Let me give you an example, I gained weight because I was in a bad relationship and I was simply comfort-eating. It wasn’t until I faced up to the fact that the lady I was with at that time was causing me more emotional turmoil than emotional gain and did something about it that I could go on to successfully change the way I was eating and therefore start to lose weight and keep the weight off.

So, in addition to what Grace has already said, I would encourage you to simply look at why you put on weight in the first place, deal with that and then you will find both weight loss and keeping fit and trim far more easy now and in the future.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Small Changes in Your Diet can Make a Huge Difference

by | May 27, 2012 | Cravings, Fat Loss, Food Choices, How Your Body Works, Metabolism, Sensible Eating, Snacks | 0 comments

Each day we make as many as 200 food choices.

These are influenced by many things, even the folk we’re eating with.Even though each of those choices may only represent a small contribution to our final health – they all add up to making an
immense difference.

You’ll probably notice that many of our reader’s questions are about small things. They are about the details in diet. Sometimes people ask me “surely, if I just take care of the big things then I don’t really need to worry about the small things?”

But when you analyse anything, the big things are made up of lots of small things. If you take care of the detail in your diet, then each of those things that you take care of will add up and make the big things far more effective. Here are a couple of those small things that you might like to consider:

Firstly, when you go to the supermarket or your local shop to stock up, look down the ingredients list to make sure you avoid eating foods that have got artificial sweeteners, MSG and a whole range of additives and colorants. These are the things that many manufacturers have to put into their food in order to put back the flavour and vitamin content that their processing has processed out.
Try as much as you can to use organically sourced and grown produce. By sticking to
organic (from a reputable producer), you know that you are not going to be eating and digesting pesticides, phosphates, all kinds of hormones and all the other things that commercial food producers use in order to overcome the problems that their fast-food production line cause.

It’s making those healthy choices, the small ones, that all add up to a much healthier lifestyle.

And it’s not just what you eat!

A small choice you can make every day is just to take the elevator to get up two floors, or take the stairs. Taking two flights of stairs briskly will do far more for your heart than taking the elevator, that’s for sure.

Doing that five or six times a day, is just like jogging to the top of a ten-storey building!

It’s those type of small changes that I’m talking about, those small changes can make a really big difference.

The reason for making those choices is clear.

In Europe, the U.S.. Australia and in fact most of what would be considered the western world, its poor lifestyle choices that (e.g. what we choose to eat, to exercise, etc) account for the leading causes of death. Things like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and the rest.

In fact, the WHO (World Health Organization), in it’s recent World Cancer Report, have said that the rates of cancer would increase by 50 percent over the next 15 years. Statistics like that are cause for concern.

However, all is not doom and gloom as WHO also intimates that at least a third of the cases could be prevented by folk making better lifestyle choices.

Some folk think that in order to make these changes they have to make a lot of sacrifices. But in reality, this is just not so.

If you think about it, it won’t cost you much at all to take the stairs (often times it’s quicker than taking the lift). In fact just 20 or so miniutes of
exercise a day can make the difference .

And to eat organic may cost you a few more
dollars a month, but these are all a small price to pay in exchange for a long, healthy, active and
sickness free life.