Favorite Food Gifts

I decided to stop the advertisements on my blog. We thought it would be a helpful revenue (and it was) but I was unable to control what companies advertised. There ended up being lots of diet products I don’t approve of. So we have taken down the ads.

I know many of you all look to me for nutritional advise so I just can’t justify having that content on my site. Thank you all for your love and support and keep using my astore and affiliate links (on right side of my blog under “stock your pantry”) Or you can click HERE.

Your support is greatly appreciated!;) There are some great holiday gift ideas in there! 

Holiday Gift Giving Ideas

Are you looking for the perfect holiday gift for your mother, sister, husband, or friend who is really hard to buy for? Why not give them the gift of health? I have created an AMAZON.COM store where you can find all the healthy ingredients that are difficult to find in the grocery store (and if you do find them, they are often very expensive). I have done some detective work and found the lowest prices on www.amazon.com for all of the products I use and love. Everything from food, pantry items, kitchen tools, supplements and skin products are in the aStore. I rarely waste time in the grocery store because I find everything online for a way better price!

If you click on the words, you can find my suggestions:

1. Cute Food Apparel: I love Craig in his Kale shirt! Micah has one too!

2. A variety of “healthified” cooking basics to get started: coconut flour, stevia drink sticks, protein powders.

3. A box of nut flours from nuts.com

4. A smoker to make smoked meats! This is my favorite way to make chicken and ribs!

5. Oil spritzer to get rid of all the inflammatory vegetable oils in the diet. 

6. Exercise equipment or a pedometer. 

7. A box of ChocoPerfection bars.

8. A stand mixer! My mother-in-law bought me my first stand mixer and let me tell you, that is the “gift that keeps on giving!”

9. A slow cooker and The Art of Healthy Eating Slow Cooker cookbook.

10. A gallon tub of coconut oil.

11. A box of Kelp noodles or Miracle Noodles.

12. Pots and pans. Cast iron pans are my favorite!

13. Purchasing a consult or class video of mine to help them get started on their path to healing.

14. One of my favorite simple food gifts I received was a box of salt from around the World! I even keep Sea Salt in my purse now! I don’t care for the chemically tasting restaurant salt anymore.

SALT and ENERGY

When clients first adapt this lifestyle, one of the first side effects is a rapid improvement in insulin sensitivity.  Eating low carb starts to banish insulin resistance and causes insulin levels to fall quickly.  And as insulin falls, the kidneys begin to promptly release fluid.  One common complaint I get from clients when they first adopt this lifestyle is that they are up in the middle of the night urinating more than usual. I explain that this will go away eventually and it is good, but there is some bad news that comes along with it. The good news is that when you release that excess fluid, fat oxidation becomes easier. The bad news is as the extra water goes; it also removes essential sodium and electrolytes.  When sodium levels fall below a certain level, which can happen quite fast, there are some undesired side effects such as headaches, low energy, dizziness and cramping. When you first start your well-formulated low carb lifestyle and you notice if you stand up quickly and get dizzy or feel faint, you are dehydrated! Just drinking water isn’t going to work like is would with a highcarbohydrate diet. You need to add more sodium! You can add more salt to your food, drink bone broth or take sodium tablets. Salt is not the evil nutrient that your doctor warns you about. You’ve got to start thinking differently.  Just like understanding that eating more fat lowers your cholesterol, understanding that a well-formulated low carb diet requires more a lot more sodium.

FUN FACT: A small fast food milk shake has more sodium in it than fast food French fries and you wouldn’t even know it because of all the sugar.

My favorite way for clients to get more sodium is to consume homemade bone broth. This is so easy to make, you can even do it in a slow cooker!  Bone broth not only helps with getting sodium, but you also get a ton of minerals and electrolytes.  Commercial broth will not have these benefits.  It takes a few days to make, but I often make a huge batch in a pot that Craig had to make home brew (this was years ago… yes, we have come a long way in our journey) and I freeze it in small containers, it keeps it forever.

 

1. Even if you don’t have any side effects like edema or headaches, you will need extra water and sodium. Eliminating all packaged foods eliminates a lot of sodium from your diet.

2. If you get the fierce headaches that some people get when starting on a low-carb diet, add sodium.  And drink extra water.

3. If you really don’t want to make your own bone broth, you can use store bought bouillon, but please watch for MSG and gluten. Not all brands are healthy. Bouillon has a lot of sodium and tastes really good as a hot drink and can eliminate carbohydrate cravings.

4. In addition to drinking broth, I suggest you get some Celtic Sea Salt. Himalayan Salt will also work. Throw out your typical store bought salt and replace it with these. After a few months of using this salt, if you go to a relative’s house or a restaurant with regular table salt, it will taste “chemically.”

5. Don’t use these salts sparingly.  These salts have been harvested either from ancient sea beds or made by evaporating sea water with high mineral content and contain about 70% of the sodium of regular salt (which has been refined, bleached and processed until it is pretty much pure sodium chloride, often with anti-caking agents added).  The other 30% is other minerals and micronutrients (including iodine) found in mineral-rich seas.  I greatly prefer these salts taste-wise to regular salt, it is well worth the extra bucks. Do not mistakenly use Morton’s “sea salt” which is devoid of iodine and nutrients.