A Month of Meat - Go!

With exactly one month before my first family Christmas gathering, I'm committing to staying Zero Carb for all four weeks! I'm expecting to be meat-only for Christmas anyway - with all that tasty meat served up at Every. Single. Meal., why dilute the experience with a few carrots?? I feel best on meat-only, and I want that happy, healthy glow when I see my relatives - some of whom I have not seen in years! Looking extra-lovely in my new dresses won't be too bad either :)

However, I have promised to provide my readers with some holiday recipes, and I intend to honour my word! It will take some serious will-power to avoid licking fingers and sampling my wares, but I'll do it! So as soon as my first experiment is ready for publication, you'll be introduced to my resident Taster, Mr. Beau Sugarholic! He'll be especially handy when it comes to primal holiday dessert recipes, as - I can promise you - if he gives a sweet treat the thumbs up, it's a very dependable sign that even the most carb-addicted friends and family members of yours won't be able to pick that the recipe's sugar-free! I'll be donning my very feminine apron as soon as this cold is out of my system. Yep, even the super-doses of Vitamin D didn't prevent this one from taking hold. Yuck. Fingers crossed that it doesn't get any worse - I don't have any classes tomorrow so to take a sick day would be disgracefully wasteful! Maybe I'll just take along a blankie and pillow, find an empty classroom, and snooze...

But let's stick to the present day for just one moment. After yesterday's calorific refuelling, I was anything but hungry today, so I skipped breakfast, packing a bottle of protein shake just in case my appetite returned during the day. It didn't, but I downed the shake in the early afternoon just to save myself the task of lugging it home. I then napped until it was time to go get a facial (oh, my life, I tell you what...). After an hour of having my head massaged with various products (great relaxation, but also wonderful for sore sinuses), the beau collected me and we picked up a chicken for dinner. As always, I grabbed my favourite parts - legs, wings, and skin!


The breast-man grabbed his portions, and the rest of the meaty carcass is waiting in the fridge for tomorrow's breakfast. The scotch fillet steaks will wait for tomorrow's dinner...

My woozy head is telling me that I have remained vertical for far too long, but I wanted to leave you with a couple of interesting links from the past couple of days:

Charles Washington finds evidence that whilst the American Heart Association is kinda pulling a CSPI/Trans fat switcheroo in terms of their claims of 'this is what we've always said...', there is a light slowly emerging at the end of the 'fat is bad' tunnel... They're still recommending what is essentially a low-fat diet, but under the guise of moderate fat, given it is now shown that moderate fat may be better at reducing heart disease risks. Any step in the right direction is positive.

Dr. A gives us a neat little study which sums up the benefits from living on a ketogenic diet, and further proves that there's a lot more to calories than the general medical community would have you believe. I'm holding onto this one ready to whip out for nay-saying friends corrupted by docs that convince them that ketosis & ketoacidosis are one and the same, and are dangerous.

And finally, Stargazey neatly summarises one of the issues that is often on my mind when it comes to my role in the primal/low-carb community - the potential for harm. I try to stay very clear that I am sharing my experiences, not telling others that what I do is what is necessarily what they should do, and when I do feel that way I back it up with evidence wherever I can. I love answering questions when I can, and helping other people solve their health & weight woes by sharing my own experiences and scientific understandings, but at the same time I've seen and heard other 'mentors' who send individuals down dangerous paths. I won't name names of current offenders, but I'm sure most of you know of the Kimkins debacle from a couple of years back - I missed that one, yet I see other individuals forgetting about their own influence and happily encouraging others to consuming fewer and fewer calories since it works for them (does it really?), and bad-mouthing the choices of anyone who dares question The Plan.

I think I need to make a button so that my motto is loud and clear to any visitors - learn the truth about the dangers of particular foods, and within the evolution-founded diet that remains, experiment with your options until you find what works best for your health and your tastes. After all, this is a lifestyle, it's not a crash diet. Optimal health is my goal, and it's clear that fat loss is a side-effect of improved health, if you're currently overweight. If you're sacrificing health in order to be thin, then I can't empathise with you. If you're using healthful eating to achieve fat loss, then that's fine because that's how I started, and it took me a long time to realise I actually had the cause & effect in reverse. My health is what matters, and knowing that reaching my ideal weight is further evidence of my improved health is just the butter on the steak!