Is The Ketogenic Diet For You

Diet trends come and go and the current diet du jour is the Ketogenic Diet. Will it work for you? Is it something you could benefit from? Here are my thoughts.

First, any diet you pick will work to lose weight as long as it is implemented with 100% CONSISTENCY. To keep it off, it has to be a diet that you can live with for a lifetime. Many people wrongly assume that once they reach their goal weight, the diet is over and they can resume their normal life and eating. That’s why finding a diet that you can stay with forever is so important. It’s why I choose to track my macros, why some people eat Paleo, some are vegetarians, some Mediterranean, etc.

The Ketogenic diet is quite simply any diet that forces the body into a process called ketosis, whereby fats are burned instead of carbohydrates for use as energy. A proper ketogenic diet calls for the dieter to consume high amounts of fat, adequate amounts of protein, and very low amounts of carbohydrates. Generally this breaks down to about 70-60% fat, 30-20% protein, 10-5% carb. It can be very effective for weight loss and many people find it just makes them feel good overall.

Studies have shown that this diet is also very good for people with cancer and persons with epilepsy. There’s even some anecdotal evidence shows it is good for people battling Lyme disease.

Here is where you have to be very careful with this diet. The first few days will be miserable as your body is still trying to run off carbs and you aren’t giving it any. Once your body kicks into ketosis, you’ll start to feel great, about 2-3 days in if you are really keeping your carbs low (less than 25 grams per day). However, ketosis (where your body runs off fat and not carbs) is meant to be a temporary condition for your body when it suspects starvation is imminent. It does not like to stay in ketosis so the moment you eat anything carby (or even an excess of protein), your body will revert back to normal function and you will feel like poop again. That’s what makes a true ketogenic diet somewhat challenging. Cheat days are very counterproductive, especially in the beginning (2-3 months). After awhile, your carb tolerance will build up and you will not feel the carb hangover so badly.

Most sources recommend you buy testing strips to see if you are truly in ketosis or not. I would definitely suggest doing that.

Beware all the folks selling exogenous ketones and telling you that you can eat whatever you want. It doesn’t work that way. Ketone supplements do have their place, read more here about who should consider supplements.

Make sure you take a fiber supplement as you will not get enough without one. The recommended daily fiber intake is 25 grams for women and 35 for men.

And know the difference between a true ketogenic diet and something like Atkins. With ketogenic you have to really watch and track your percentages as excess protein AND carbs can affect whether you are in ketosis or not. With Atkins you can have unlimited fat and protein. Big, big differences between the two!

The biggest issue with this diet is sustainability. Studies that have been conducted to assess its effectiveness on weight loss or as nutritional therapy have seen huge dropout rates because it’s actually a really hard way to eat.

I personally do not recommend this diet because of the sustainability issue. Folks, that’s a lot of damn fat. A lot. Not there is anything wrong with it, but I personally don’t want to eat 60-70% of my daily calories from fat. If it sounds good to you, rock on! But do it correctly. Measure and weigh your foods. Track your percentages. Use ketosis strips. Don’t half ass it. And again, let me emphasize…

YOU CANNOT POP A KETONE SUPPLEMENT AND MAGICALLY BURN MORE FAT. 

Stay Strong Y'all!

What I'm currently nerding out about: This special exercise edition of Time Magazine! 

Do You Love Free Samples?

Did you know that Amazon has some really cool sample boxes that basically let you try products for free? Yep! They do!

How it works.

1) Order a sample box at a cost of $7.99- 19.99.

2) Receive a credit of the cost of the box toward the purchase of an item in the box!

For example, I love coffee! When you purchase the K-Cup Sample box for $7.99, you receive 13 K-Cups in 9 different varieties. If you choose to purchase a full size product from your samples, you get $7.99 credit toward that order. 

How many of you love makeup and fancy beauty products? Check out the Luxury Beauty Box. 

12 amazing products for only $19.99 including brands like Calvin Klein, L'Occitane, Tan Towel, Elizabeth Arden and Clark's Botanicals. If you choose to purchase one of the products in your box, you get at $19.99 credit!

Have a puppy you love to spoil? Check out the Dog Lover's Box! This box is only $11.99 and gives you samples from The Honest Kitchen, Blue, Nutro, Spot Farms and others! And again, if you choose to purchase an item from the box, the cost of the box will be deducted from your purchase.

Are you a fitness junkie or know someone who is? Why not try an Optimum Nutrition box? This box is only $7.99 and you get samples of protein, amino acids, fat burners, pre workouts, protein bar and other fun stuff!. Yet again, you get $7.99 credit to the purchase of any item from the box.

These are just a few of the boxes that caught my eye, but there are quite a few listed on the sample page. You do need to be an Amazon Prime Member to get these deals, but most of us probably already are, right? 

Stay Strong Y'all!

**Many of the links above are affiliate links. This means that if you click through my link and purchase something, the company gives me a few pennies as a ‘Thanks For Referring Yo Friends’ gift. You get charged nothing extra. And I get a penny (or two) for my thoughts.

Clairol Root Touch Up- A Product Review

Raise your hand if you love your hair! Raise your hand if you don’t love your ‘Sparklers’! What are Sparklers you ask? They are what I call my grays. I do not love them. At all. I do, however, love my hair girl, Kela because with one magic appointment she makes my hair look awesome! We’ve done brown, blue, red and blonde! This transformation from blech to beautiful happens as long as I remember to make appointments…. And I’m really, really bad about not making an appointment to get my hair colored until it is really, really disastrous looking.

It was about the time that I was realizing that the hair needed some help that Influenster sent me a box of Clairol® Root Touch-Up - Light Brown to try and review for the blog. I was skeptical because I learned a long time ago not to try to do my own coloring at home, but I thought, eh, why not? If it is a train wreck, Kela can fix it!

The instructions were super easy. I took the provided little plastic tray and mixed bottle #2 with tube #1. I swirled it around with the provided brush and then painted it on my part line and hair line. I waited 15 minutes and sent a few ridiculous Snaps to my sister who tried to convince me this was a bad, bad idea. At this point however, it was too late to turn back.

After fifteen minutes I rinsed and conditioned as the directions said. And guess what? It was awesome! When it dried, the sparklers were gone and my roots were a nice shade of light brown that blended really well with the rest of my hair. Beyond impressed!

Before (and post lake)/ After

I even got a Snap of approval (‘Not bad’) from my sis!

It wasn’t messy and it was super easy. If you wake up and realize that your roots have become too much, I’d encourage you to give Clairol Root Touch Up a go! It will tide you over until you can get your whole head ‘did’!

Disclaimer- I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

Want an opportunity to get free stuff too? Check out Influenster!

Stay Strong Y'all!

A Quickie On Multi-Vitamins

Someone asked a question on a group I am in about what brand multi-vitamins we used. A few people said they are a waste of money so I wanted to give my two cents. Here's my brief reply.

There are two schools of thought currently on vitamins. One is that unless your diet is sheer crap, you don't need a multi as the number of calories that we eat generally covers the basics. This line of thought also says that since we don't know how effective vitamins are individually (i.e outside of a whole food source) that it's waste of money. The second school of thought is that even if you have a great diet, you are probably lacking in or two areas just because we all tend to get in food ruts. Even healthy ruts! This school of thought goes on to say that vitamins are cheap insurance to cover any low areas so why not? I subscribe to the second school, but since I'm pretty frugal, I don't spend a lot on multis. I get the adult gummies by Vitafusion. I figure at $8-9 a bottle, even if I pee out 99% it's still a good deal!

Stay Strong Y'all!

I just updated my "Affiliates I Love" page, check it out!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

**Many of the links above are affiliate links. This means that if you click through my link and purchase something, the company gives me a few pennies as a ‘Thanks For Referring Yo Friends’ gift. You get charged nothing extra. And I get a penny (or two) for my thoughts.

A RANT: USDA Changes To School Lunch Nutrition Requirements

A friend shared this article on social media last night regarding changes being made to the school lunch program and I started commenting on the post. Then I realized that I was long past commenting and had moved on to ranting and was hijacking his post. To be polite, I deleted everything I had typed and moved my thoughts over here. 

The short version of the article is this:

• Schools no longer have to limit sodium as strictly in the foods they serve.

• School no longer have to serve whole grain foods if they can show it's a "hardship" to serve them. (WTH does that even mean?)

• Schools can serve 1% flavored milk again.

These changes are being made because they say simply, the kids won't eat the food they are serving and are throwing meals in the trash.

And I would say this is probably true. But it's not because of the healthy food guidelines!! It's because...

AS A NATION, WE DON'T PRIORITIZE HEALTHY FOODS!!

I think the problem with proper implementation and kids not eating the food presented by cafeterias boils down to improper funding for healthy food. If we, as a nation, prioritized making healthy food an option, the school systems would be able to afford healthy, tasty foods that easily meet the guidelines. 

And since most school cafeterias, especially around here, are funded by the USDA, then they of all, people should see this. (Don't get me started on the USDA too much because I love a farmer, but why can't we subsidize fruits and veggies??)

When you are trying to meet very reasonable guidelines for nutrition with cheap, industrial food to meet a ridiculous budget, of course it's going to be gross and kids won't eat it!

When you are trying to meet a guideline for x ounces of protein per tray, but no more than x grams of salt or fat with cheap chicken nuggets, there is your big problem! Stop forcing school to meet minimum requirements with crap food! The cost of 6 battered and breaded chicken nuggets is probably less than 3-4 ounces of chicken breast. But I know kids will eat chicken breast if it is tasty! Come on world, let's give kids REAL food!

But let me go back and address the current changes to the program.

Schools no longer have to limit sodium as strictly in the foods they serve.

As a nation, we eat WAYYY to much salt. There is no reason for kids to get a ton more at school. Herbs and spices and good ol' Mrs. Dash can make food taste great. However, if we are depending on PROCESSED industrial food of course it needs salt to hide it's nastiness. Kids won't eat it low salt processed food because it's gross. Get real food back in the cafeteria and salt won't be needed to make it palatable. 

School no longer have to serve whole grain foods if they can show it's a "hardship" to serve them. (WTH does that even mean?)

Instead, they can serve regular old white, cheap bread. As a consumer, I can go purchase a really nice loaf of whole grain bread and it is delicious. If I'm in trying to operate on a ridiculously small budget and feed 500 kids, yeah, the whole grain buns I'm going to be able to purchase are probably going to be disgusting. Duh. And honestly, most people these days realize you don't HAVE to have grains in your diet to be healthy. So here's a suggestion. Scrap the grain requirement and spend that money on lean meats, fresh fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds! (Remember, the USDA is the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture grows grains and it serves their interests to mandate schools serve grains.)

Schools can serve 1% flavored milk again.

Baby cows need milk. Humans not so much. But even if you believe that kids need their milk, they don't need the 18 grams of sugar in strawberry or chocolate milk when the American Heart Association says that children should not consume more than 25 grams PER DAY.

Guys, I don't know how to fix the problem because it's a huge problem. But when you try to build a beautiful house to live in until you and your entire family die, but you use cheap materials and cut corners, things are bound to go wrong. 

These kids can't cook for themselves. They can't shop for themselves. They depend on us, the adults, to look after them. We have to stop putting emphasis on quick, easy and cheap when feeding them. 


**To my farmer friends. I love you guys. I am not hating on you. I am hating on a US government entity that has tied your hands to four crops and doesn't allow you to support your family unless you play their game. I know many of you have a deep desire to get off of the constant hamster wheel that is farming with US subsidies. American farmers keep this country strong and are the reason we have many of the things we have. I just wish you were allowed more crop diversity and were treated like more than a sharecropper.

UPDATE: A good friend addressed this topic on her blog as well. She's a mommy of two little ones and knows first hand how hard it is to get children to eat well. 

Stay Strong Y'all!

I just updated my "Affiliates I Love" page, check it out!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy....

Nancy

5 rounds for time of

400 meter run
10 Overhead Squats

Not my favorite workout because I'm not a great runner and OHS are one of my weaker lifts. In the past, we've done Nancy at least once a year and I've always had to walk on some of the runs and I've had to break up the OHS. I couldn't find my old PR on Nancy, but I'm pretty sure it was 22 minutes-ish.

We did it yesterday and  I'm super excited to say I did it Friday in......

15:45!!

Now, that's not super fast I know. Some of my girls at the box did it in 12 or 13 minutes, but I'm stoked because I ran all the 400s and I did all the OHS unbroken. Oh, and I've not squatted in three weeks (knee rehab), so I was pleasantly surprised that the squats felt good and nothing hurts today. WOOT WOOT!

If you are interested in keeping up with my CF progress, I put up a stats page. The reason I did this is two-fold. One, to motivate myself. If I know I'm going to post my score on a benchmark here, I will push harder. Two, to motivate others. Sometimes we all get in slumps and feel like we aren't progressing. I've been at the this CF game for about 8 years and PRs are still coming, but they come slower than when you are new. Case in point, I haven't PRd my clean and jerk since 2015. I think I hit my deadlift PR in 2014. But, I can still track growth and progress by keeping a record of my results.

Always moving forward.

Stay Strong Y'all!

If you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

**Many of the links above are affiliate links. This means that if you click through my link and purchase something, the company gives me a few pennies as a ‘Thanks For Referring Yo Friends’ gift. You get charged nothing extra. And I get a penny (or two) for my thoughts.

What I'm Reading, Volume I

I love to read, both fiction and non-fiction. I remember the first time I read Gone With The Wind in 7^th grade and absolutely fell in love with the story, the characters and the drama that engulfed poor Miss Scarlett her entire life. The fact that the America Civil War was an area of emphasis in my collegiate career is in no small part a direct result of Ms. Margaret Mitchell.

For me, reading is therapy. It lets me get out of my head and into someone else’s. There is something so relaxing about sticking my nose in a book and ignoring everything else.

Sometime I read non-fiction to make my inner student-nerd happy. Random knowledge is some of my favorite knowledge!

Since you are reading this blog, you must be a little like me and maybe you enjoy reading as much as I do. This will be a series on the blog where I let you guys know what I’m currently reading, loving and hating.

Here are three I've read and enjoyed lately.

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

Let’s be honest. We’ve all had that moment when our spouse pushes us over the edge and we think, “Oh my god, I’m gonna kill him!” In this book, someone says that out loud, to the wrong person (or maybe the right person, depending on how you look at it) and all hell breaks loose.

I really enjoyed this one and while I had a pretty good hunch of what was going to happen, I was still delighted as my suspicions were confirmed!

The Widow by Fiona Barton 

She was the perfect wife and she worked damn hard at it. When the husband dies, will she keep up the façade or let the secrets spill?

Trigger warning, this is one is pretty dark and covers the uncomfortable topic of child pornography. If you choose to read it, pay very close attention to the dates and names at the start of each chapter as it jumps around chronologically.

Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi

A story of a Fante tribe of Africa told through seven generations as they suffer through the slave trade and the repercussions of it. It is a good book, but be prepared to continually reference the family tree at the beginning of the book. It gets complicated y'all. And honestly, if you haven’t read Roots, read it first then come back to this one.  Homecoming is like Roots version 2.0, but not nearly as good as the original.


What books are you enjoying right now? I have quite a few I'd like to tackle this year, but am always looking for more!

Stay Strong Y'all!

I just updated my "Affiliates I Love" page, check it out!

And if you are hip on the social media, 

Follow me on Facebook at Angie McCord, Fitness, Nutrition and Life Improvement.

Follow me out on Instagram, I'm doodleturtle. I'm even more random fun over at IG!

**Many of the links above are affiliate links. This means that if you click through my link and purchase something, the company gives me a few pennies as a ‘Thanks For Referring Yo Friends’ gift. You get charged nothing extra. And I get a penny (or two) for my thoughts.