School is officially in! I am working basically full time and at multiple doctor appointments during the week as well. I’m healthy, but doctors don’t place a whole bunch of stock in changing diet as a means to keep me cancer free. (I COULD GO ON FOR HOURS ON THIS!)
Getting dinner on the table is still important to us! I have very little time to get something on the table after finishing work, getting the kiddo from school, the hubs usually works out for an hour or so, mail, dogs, life…you all know!
So our meals are less than creative but still have to be Keto.
I am working on mixing it up, but for the most part, fall into a pattern. Veggie and protein with a cream sauce or butter.
I am a huge advocate for the organic frozen veggies at HEB and Costco, I buy them at almost every trip to the store. They are cost effective, stay fresh, and can be ready in minutes.
Frozen veggies are typically flash frozen right off the plant and can often be just as good for you or even better than items found in the produce section. Top with KerryGold some pink salt, pepper and you are set!
So next time at the store, toss in a few bags of the frozen cauliflower, broccoli, and chopped spinach! It’s one of the easiest and fastest ways to get a veggie on the table, and keep your weeknight sanity!
When we meet with clients, we most often hear, “Where do I buy that?” and “What can I pack in the kids’ lunch boxes?”
These are both very good questions, and ones that we struggled with for quite some time. Like everyone, we get stuck in our ruts with our favorites, both grocery shopping and lunch planning.
I have posted before about Costco, but after the children started back at school, I decided to go on a little adventure at Trader Joe’s. They have some fantastic deals there and some fun and different items. This is my most recent haul from TJ’s:
From left to right:
Organic Broccoli Slaw (you can find the recipe on our blog – the dressing is Keto fabulous!), Tomatoes, Seaweed “crackers” (these are great for soft cheeses – just spread and wrap), Coconut Milk, Aioli Garlic Mustard Sauce, Organic Heavy Whipping Cream, Mushrooms, Sliced Brussel Sprouts, Crunchy Salted Peanut Butter with Flax and Chia Seeds (for the kids), Artichoke Antipasto, Marinated Olives, Whole Milk Yogurt, REAL Stevia, Basil (their spices are a bargain), Whole Brussel Sprouts.
The whole reason I went to Trader Joe’s was to get our favorite snack though:
YUM!!!! The Rosemary are our favorite!!!
Other great finds at TJ’s are produce, meats, cheeses – lots of cheeses – we especially like the marinated fresh mozzarella, other nuts and seeds – love the pumpkin and sunflower seeds, other items I have yet to find! Please share your favorites with us!
All of my kids are back in school! It is a jolt after a long summer, but we all love to be back in a routine.
Here are our first day shots:
Carolyn is doing her first round of Kinder this year, and loving every minute! She just turned 5 years old.
Colton is on the left – he is our middle child (and loves to tell us about it). He just started third grade, and is 8 years old. Chaz is now in 5th grade (where does the time go?). He is 10 years old and our most Keto-adapted of the three.
I only share them so that you know, I am, where many of you are, in this adventure and blessing of parenthood. It is a challenge, but oh so rewarding! They have adapted very well to our Keto lifestyle, although I do not force it on them when they are not under our roof. Generally, as their mother, I can control most of what they eat, but it is important to us (my husband and I) that they do not feel singled out, denied or forbidden. We do not want to create that “forbidden fruit” syndrome where as soon as they are away from us they run to the nearest donut or candy shop. They know how they feel when they eat healthy, and the they know how they feel when they eat sugar, so we advise – not demand. Our hope is, that through our constant example, they will learn to make healthy eating decisions on their own. I have not heard one complaint about the lunch box yet!!!
I thought it would be helpful to share how we have been packing lunch over the past week since we started back to school.
Staples in the lunch box always include:
A Protein – Steak, Fajita Meat, Pepperoni, Salami, Nut Butter, Lettuce Tacos, etc.
Other Add-Ins: Olives, Whole Milk Yogurt, Chia Squeeze (a little high in sugar for everyday, but good fiber and a treat for the kiddos), Dark Chocolate (85% or higher), Berries.
Leftovers are great, and often their favorite.
I suggest a quality thermos and decent ice packs. I always warm the thermos for hot food items by filling the cavity with simmering water for about 5 minutes. Discard the water and fill with hot food. It will stay hot until lunch this way.
This is what lunch looked like for my children today:
The blue ice pack is on the bottom. The white foil is a cup of sliced salami, mixed nuts, water, leftover steak, and blackberries. There is some cheese in there too!
This is the Thermos I use above, and the two types of cheeses I packed. They will usually eat one for lunch and save the other for snack on the way home.
The last of the lunch boxes – this is the whole milk kefir on top (yes – it has added sugar, but is a treat filled with great healthy fat just for the KIDS), blackberries, and yummy hot leftover chicken curry in the thermos!
Each child is a little different, and we are always coming up with new things we like and they like. Stay connected, and we will try to send out our newest, greatest ideas. We would love to hear from you too! What low-sugar healthy foods do your kids love?
Here is another SUPER simple and painless way to improve the health of your family.
Swap out that blue can of chemicals: either the salt, lite salt, or salt free can that has been gracing your dinner table. For one of these two:
Himalayan Salt
Containing all of the 84 elements found in your body, the benefits of natural Himalayan Crystal Salt include: Regulating the water content throughout your body. Promoting healthy pH balance in your cells, particularly your brain cells. Promoting blood sugar health and helping to reduce the signs of aging.
I buy the grinder from Costco for around $4.00.
The richer and more varied the colors in the salt the better!
Add this to everything! Top your eggs, finish your protein and veggies! EVERYTHING.
The also amazing but less easy to find is The Grey Celtic Salt:
Grey salt is a “moist” unrefined sea salt, usually found in the Brittany region of France’s Atlantic coast. Its natural light grey color comes from the minerals absorbed from the clay lining the saltponds. The salt is collected by hand using traditional Celtic methods and wooden tools.
Grey Celtic Salt
These two completely blow away the competition! They will not break the bank and once you switch you will notice the pure real, healthy, and difference of good quality Salt.
The school year is off to a start, and Labor Day is here, which means the official end of summer. There are both cheers and boos, pros and cons.
One of the biggest cons is that, all to familiar, morning rush once again. The days of cereal boxes and skim milk are long gone for many of us. If you have heard us speak in a group, you are familiar with our “Trifecta of Sugar” lecture.
A typical morning breakfast cereal topped with fruit has the glucose from the cereal, lactose from the milk and fructose from your fruit. Bad, bad and more bad leading to a day of cravings and carb loading, no doubt. If you start your day with carbs and sugar, you will crave more carbs and sugar as you go through your day, leading to that downward spiral as the day moves on.
What else can you have for breakfast on those busy mornings when you don’t have time to scramble, fry or poach? Try faux “cereal”! We have tried it, the kids have tried it, and it is family approved. The best part – you can make it ahead and seal it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. It is ready to go for a breakfast in a hurry! Top with some heavy cream, and you are set for half the day if you eat it along side your bulletproof coffee to tea.
It is super simple to make, and you can really make it your own just by adding your favorite low-carb ingredients. Try a little, and let us know what you think!
Faux Cereal
Your ingredients and portions can vary. Mix it to your liking.
1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut, toasted
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds
2 Tbsp Kerrygold
1 Tbsp Swerve
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp Celtic salt
Directions:
Toast your coconut flakes, watching carefully so not to brown to deeply.
Chop all your nuts finely and lightly toast.
Melt the Kerrygold in a cast iron skillet.
Toss your nuts in the melted butter, and sauté until fragrant. Add your toasted coconut, Swerve and seasonings. Toss all your ingredients in the butter until everything is mixed and coated.
Allow it to cool and then store in an airtight container until ready to serve.
This can be served as a dessert over whipping cream or for a breakfast cereal with cream.
The kids are heading back or have headed back to school, and in so many ways it feels like a new year in general. The new school year brings on thoughts similar to that of the new calendar year.
What are you going to do differently?
One of the easiest things you can do is to add in healthy fats.
Toss the margarine – along with any other vegetable oil spread or Crisco type products. What is that stuff anyhow?!
Bring back butter! The real stuff – preferably grass fed. Have you heard of Kerrygold? It’s amazing, and I know more than a few people who eat this stuff straight off their knife.
Try coconut oil. If you have not heard of the amazing health benefits of coconut oil, there are countless websites that are singing the praises of this superfood! Authority Nutrition has a top 10 list. Add it to your coffee, use it place of your conditioner or moisturizer – really this stuff is down right great.
Bring back whole milk and cream. Quit using sugar water skim milk in your coffee, enjoy your coffee and/or tea with heavy cream or at least half and half. You will enjoy the cup so much more. Reading the ingredients on the bottle of non-dairy creamer likely requires a degree in chemistry.
If the kiddos are on skim and are whole milk phobic, try to stair step them up. Up it to 2% and then whole. Before they realize it, they will be in whole milk Heaven.
We will post more ideas in the upcoming days and weeks!
Thank you greatly to Fit Fusion and to those who came out to listen to Cindy speak this morning!
We sincerely hope that you left feeling empowered and armed with some tools to help you. I apologize greatly for not being there this morning and getting to meet with you as well. Cindy told me it was a great group!
Cindy and I LOVE talking about our lifestyle! While our way of eating may not be for every person, we believe that everyone should look at the way they eat, the way they feel, and how those two things are completely intertwined.
We would love the opportunity to help you, those you love, or even those with whom you work. If you have a group that you think would benefit from a nutritional talk, along with a question and answer session, we would absolutely be thrilled to talk to you!
We offer individual and group consultations, multi-session packages, and group talks, among other services, like pantry clean outs and cooking classes to help you get started on your path to healthier eating. Please visit our services page and remember we can customize as well.
In fact, we are currently helping some clients by simply monitoring, measuring, and simply trying to hold them accountable. If any of these things sound like something you maybe interested in, please do not hesitate to contact us through our website, email, or on Facebook.
We love what we do, and would enjoy the opportunity to help you feel better.
Erin and I are super passionate about health and healthy eating! We have both struggled with sugar addiction and were able to kick the habit.
We love sharing our stories and are super excited about our “Sweet Surprise” discussion tomorrow at Fit Fusion Studio.
Please join us Thursday, August 27th at 9:00 AM!
Cindy will be sharing both stories about how sugar wreaked havoc in both lives, and how changing your eating habits can change your life for the better!
Send your friends, your parents, your kids and your siblings! It is FREE!
It is hard to believe that school has arrived once again!
I have one that started today and two that start in a couple of weeks. It is funny how that same old routine starts immediately. The one thing that stumps people the most in this rut of a routine is SNACK time! What do you serve for snacks when you don’t eat carbs? This one was tough at first, but it is much of the same foods that I pack in a low-carb lunchbox, so you can use this article as a means for both.
First off, toss the juice boxes – PLEASE! Those are loaded with sugar!
What about just water? If your child refuses plain water, try infusing it with fruit or cucumbers, or see if they like a sparkling water like La Croix. Mine think it is a treat! There are a ton of flavors from which to choose, so your family will never get bored.
Next, go through your pantry (or call us to do it) and toss the chips, cookies, crackers, pretzels, and goldfish – yep, I said it – even the goldfish. They are all carbs and carbs = sugar!
Your body doesn’t even know the difference between the two!
So, what do you feed the kiddos when you don’t have goldfish?
There are a ton of options, many of which we have posted before, but we will remind you!
This is the number one favorite in the Lutz household:
Veggies with Ranch Dip
Obviously, mine love the mini-peppers!
Other great dips to serve with vegetables are spinach dip, artichoke dip and pimento cheese. The later is a great lunch option as well!
Cheese crackers with salsa or guacamole is another favorite in our house.
Don’t forget about the yummy olives we posted last week too!
Sometimes if I want to dress things up a bit, I will do a nice cheese sampler tray. This is great for the little tastebuds too and fancy enough for company!
Another fun snack is the savory fat bombs. I was able to find some great snacks at Costco that were cheese and meat wrapped up together similar to a fat bomb. They are cute and would work great in a lunchbox as well.
A few other great options:
Cheese sticks or Baby Bells
Lunch meat (or the two together!) Choose your meat carefully. Stay away from the pre-sliced – get the quality meat (Such as Boar’s Head) in the deli and have it sliced thinly for wrapping. Watch for Nitrates and other additives.
Pickles
Refreshing Cukes
Celery and Queso
Whole milk yogurt (for the kids)
Jerky or beef sticks
A variety of nuts (w/out peanuts)
Stuffed mushrooms
Celery and nut butter
Deviled or Boiled Eggs
Sausage on a Stick
These are just a few of many options! Hopefully this will get you started in this back-to -school rush time! Don’t be afraid to try new things and push your kiddos to expand their palates a little. We hope everyone has a great beginning to the school year. Remember to be strong and eat right! You (and your children) need to eat healthy to be healthy! Happy Back-to-School week!
Feel free to drop us a note in the comments section if you have a question about lunch or snacks. Chances are, someone else is wondering the same thing! Also, feel free to share some of your favorites!
We just posted a page for those out there that would like to do more reading (or listening) and research a bit further on their own.
Sample of Erin’s Keto library
There are TONS of books, sites, Podcasts, and articles out there, and we have read or listened to so many of them. Together we have created a list of a few of our favorites and brought that list to our site to share with you. You can purchase these off of our Amazon store – right out of our page (EASY!).
Yes! We have read pretty much everything we can get our hands on regarding the topic of Keto! We have read a ton about Paleo as well (if you have questions on that) and the Paleo resources are much more abundant.
I will also say, from first hand experience, the selection of material at the San Antonio Library has also been very good. And if its not there you can ask online or at any branch they are extremely helpful in locating anything specific. This is a great way to try out cookbooks as well!
We are full of suggestions on this topic! Please just ask if you would like to know where to start depending on your goals we will lead you in the right direction.
For those of you that have seen our library of Keto resources, you know that it is extensive. We read A LOT! Erin and I are very passionate about diet and nutrition so we literally live, eat, and breathe what we preach! While we love our books, there is also a lot of information coming out in the news on a daily basis. In addition to our books, we subscribe to wellness and health magazines, both through snail mail and email, and scour the internet for the latest and greatest information. Gut health and depression has been in the headlines quite often the past few weeks. This is an article from Paleo Plan, an online subscription I follow on occasion:
“Did you hear the good news!? At long last…science is recognizing something that’s been known since antiquity…the interconnectedness between gut health and disease!
Recently researchers have begun to realize how depression and overall brain health are intimately connected to our microbiome (the 3-5 pounds of bacteria living inside our bodies which outnumber our own cells 10:1). Several studies are now linking depression with imbalances in our microbiome. In other words, having too much ‘bad bacteria’ and not enough ‘good bacteria’ in our guts can trigger depression (and a host of other diseases).
While scientists are rejoicing about their ‘discovery’ that the brain is indeed influenced by gut health, this is not breaking news. The father of Western medicine, Hippocrates, proclaimed over 2,000 years ago, “All disease begins in the gut”.
What is more along the lines of breaking news are recent headlines likening yogurt to Prozac for treating depression. Now before you go raid the dairy aisle of your local grocery store, let’s chat about why yogurt is being touted as an antidepressant.
Yogurt is marketed to contain probiotics, which are beneficial ‘good’ bacteria critical for immune function and overall health. These probiotics are also capable of altering our emotional state, and studies have found that supplementation with them can improve mood and act as a mild antidepressant.
There are some problems with most yogurts sold at the market (other than the dairy, sugar and other non-Paleo ingredients they commonly contain). Many commercial yogurt products have been pasteurized at high temperatures after the live bacteria cultures have been added, essentially killing all of the probiotics.
Further, we house hundreds of different species of bacteria in our guts, yet most yogurts (and probiotic pills) contain only a small handful of species. Dysbiosis (an imbalanced gut microbiome) is defined as overgrowth of any one type of bacteria. Unfortunately a ‘good’ bacteria can become ‘bad’ if taken in excess.
While yogurt may not be the best source of probiotics, there are several ways to increase your microbial diversity. Eating dietary fiber from whole, natural foods at every meal feeds the good bacteria in your gut and colon, helping them to naturally populate. Other foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, coconut kefir or yogurt, kombucha, live probiotic drinks, and other fermented/cultured vegetables are packed full of living probiotics. The key is to select a brand that is live or raw, meaning the bacteria haven’t been killed via pasteurization. Better yet, you can make your own raw fermented foods!
Lastly, it’s easy to overconsume any one type of bacteria if you take the same probiotic pills over and over. That’s why I urge my clients to rotate their brand of probiotic supplements and ideally get their probiotics from whole food sources.
Ok, so yogurt is probably not the”new Prozac” as news reports are so eagerly proclaiming, but the message is valid: a happy gut precedes a happy mind! It’s time for us all to quit fearing bacteria, and to embrace the reality that our bodies contain more bacterial cells than human cells…now that’s some food for thought! :)” – Paleo Plan
While we do not recommend yogurt for adults on a Ketogenic diet, I do allow my children to have good quality, unsweetened yogurt from grass-fed cows. It has the quality probiotics as well as the nutrients from grass-fed cows that you can’t get from any other kind of yogurt. This one in particular is also WHOLE milk yogurt that is almost impossible to find in this day of low-fat everything! It is the best I have found and a great treat for the kiddos.
I was listening to this same study on Good Morning America this morning and then came across it online as well, so I wanted to share it and put it in line with the Keto diet. It is written from a Paleo perspective so it does not follow all of our rules exactly, but it does have some good tips about cleaning up your gut! This is where Keto helps a ton! Fat is great for the brain and Keto does a great job cleaning up the gut bacteria even alone. The GMA segment was mainly focusing on carbs causing depression and the great probiotic foods we can use to help it. We all know we need to cut the carbs, but not everyone knows that there are actually healing foods that can repair some of the damage we have caused.
Dr. Perlmutter’s new book entitled, Brain Maker is all about the gut, and the foods you can use to clean it up! In fact, a large part of the article above is taken directly from his book. This is on my bedside table at the moment, and about to move to the kitchen to try the recipes he has included in it as well. Check it out in our Amazon Store!
The gut and the brain are more connected than we ever thought. What you put in your mouth can greatly effect what happens in your brain. Even more, as ketoers, we know that the brain prefers fat as a fuel, and by replacing your carbs for fat you are already helping. Now imagine going a step further to feed it healing foods as well!
How do we cause damage? Many ways, but a BIG one is antibiotics. We try to limit antibiotics as much as possible. While they were created for life-saving measures, they are highly overprescribed and frankly abused this day in age. I only take them and give them to my family if they are absolutely necessary – and by that, I mean a raging ear infection, sinus infection or something we know, without a doubt, an antibiotic can fix. If a virus is a possibility – I pass. Another example; I had a severe allergic reaction to a yellow-jacket sting last week. After two days my foot swelled so badly that I couldn’t get a flip flop on and it was turning colors. I reluctantly went to an emergency clinic when my foot was hot to the touch. The doctor immediately wanted to give me an antibiotic to reduce the CHANCES of infection. I did NOT have an infection, I had a reaction! I verified this and refused the antibiotic. There ARE cases when an antibiotic is needed. Just tell your doctor that if it’s not necessary you don’t want it. So many doctors today are quick to provide a fix because they think that is what YOU want, when in reality, you may just need to wait a couple of days to shake off a virus. If, however, an antibiotic is taken, you need to know that it not only kills the bad bacteria, but also kills the GOOD bacteria your body needs for many functions. I know it sounds crazy, but your body NEEDS bacteria. There is actually a purpose for it. So what to do, if you are sick with a fever and NEED an antibiotic? Take a great quality probiotic TWO hours after taking your antibiotic. While there isn’t exact science, this seems to have the best results in replacing some of the good bacteria you kill with the antibiotic. Here are a couple of probiotics we believe are GREAT ones. I do take these daily and switch them up after I finish a bottle.
These first two need to stay in the refrigerator:
This one below does not need to be refrigerated so it is great for travel:
To sum it up…Take care of your gut and it will take care of you. It kind of goes along with what we have heard for years…”You are what you eat.” It seems now, that this saying is more accurate than we ever imagined!
Take care of you, yours, and your gut! Happy Friday!
There are TONS of books, sites, Podcasts, and articles out there, and we have read or listened to so many of them. Together we have created a list of a few of our favorites and brought that list to our site to share with you. You can purchase these off of our 
