You can do this workout even if you aren’t in an alley with a classic car

I didn’t have time to go to the gym yesterday but I wanted a great workout. I wanted to combine strength and metabolic training to reduce the time I spent working out. So, I decided to do a workout inspired by the T-Nation 10,000 Kettlebell Swing Workout. About half way through I was cursing myself for attempting this workout and had started the negative talk that inevitably happens when something is hard…I’m never going to be able to finish this…I’m going to reduce the weight on the last set…maybe I’ll just do half of the last set. But I pushed through and by three quarters of the way though I was determined to finish strong. By the end I had completed everything I set out to do, even if I did have to immediately sit down so I didn’t fall due to Jell-O legs.

The T-Nation workout I linked to above is based on 5 rounds of alternating kettlebell swings and low rep strength movements. Each day you do a different strength movement. Since this was going to be a one-off workout for me I wanted to do a different strength exercise in each round. You can choose different exercises based on your goals, abilities, equipment, and limitations.

If you’re looking for a full body workout that you can do with minimal equipment*, that is fully customizable to your strength level, and that will leave you sweaty and pumped, read on.

*If you don’t have kettlebells, this adjustable kettlebell set is great to get you started. It’s what I have at home and it works very well.

Round 1

• KB swing: 10 reps
• Suitcase deadlift*: 1 rep
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 15 reps
• Suitcase deadlift: 2 reps
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 25 reps
• Suitcase deadlift: 3 reps
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 50 reps
• Rest up to 3 minutes before round 2

*Use the deadlift variation that works best for you. I chose this one because I don’t have a barbell at home.

Round 2

• KB swing: 10 reps
• Chin up/pull up: 1 rep
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 15 reps
• Chin up/pull up: 2 reps
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 25 reps
• Chin up/pull up: 3 reps
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 50 reps
• Rest up to 3 minutes before round 3

Round 3

• KB swing: 10 reps
• Goblet squat**: 1 rep
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 15 reps
• Goblet squat: 2 reps
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 25 reps
• Goblet squat: 3 reps
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 50 reps
• Rest up to 3 minutes before round 3

**Use the squat variation that works best for you.

Round 4

• KB swing: 10 reps
• One arm shoulder press/push press: 1 rep
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 15 reps
• One arm shoulder press/push press: 2 reps
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 25 reps
• One arm shoulder press/push press: 3 reps
• Rest up to 30 seconds as needed
• KB swing: 50 reps
• Rest up to 3 minutes before round 3

Note that you’re doing very low reps on the strength movements so you can use heavier weight that you’re used to on higher rep sets. If you know your 5 rep max, use that. At the same time though you’ll be doing a lot of kettlebell swings so you’ll probably want a lighter bell than you’re used to using. Trust me, you don’t want to use a bell that’s too heavy and rise throwing it across the room on a swing because your grip gives out. If you pick a weight that’s not right, adjust mid workout.

If you make this workout part of your regular routine, time yourself so you can see how you’re improving both by being able to move faster and by needing less rest time. Today the whole workout took me 40 minutes which was more than I expected but fit right in the time it takes me to do my regular workouts so I was happy.

You can add weight to both the swings and the lifts as you get stronger.

Try the workout and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I am not a trainer or a fitness professional. This workout is simply something I enjoyed and that worked well for me. Consult your doctor before starting any new fitness routine.

Here’s the secret to keeping your dog healthy and happy. Hint: It includes real food, wink wink!

As a follower of the Paleo or Primal Diet, you’re most likely well versed in ancestral nutrition and are aware of the curing power of consuming real, biologically appropriate foods.

Not only are you knowledgeable, you believe in this methodology and way of life because, well, duh, you wouldn’t be reading a primal living blog if you weren’t quite fond of it.

Though you’re already well versed, let’s recap the theory behind the Paleo or Primal diet, or any ancestral diet for that matter.

Basic Premise of Ancestral Nutrition

There’s been heaps of research validating the point that primitive peoples and early civilizations were healthier than we are today. Though they had shorter lifespans due to dangerous lifestyles (western medicine didn’t exist to heal injury or infection), nutritionally speaking, they were superior to us.

The illnesses and diseases of today were non-existent because those peoples ate real, natural, and unaltered foods. This was before the agricultural revolution and far before the times of processed convenience food. Their health was superior from eating natural, unaltered foods, but that wasn’t the only piece to their nutritional fountain of youth. The foods they consumed were biologically appropriate for them.

What does this mean?

They consumed foods that supported their anatomy and physiology, more importantly, foods that their digestive tracts were equipped to handle.

Ancestral Nutrition for Animals

You may know the secret to optimal health, but have you given much thought to how these principles can apply to our beloved pets?

People aren’t the only ones that benefit from eating natural, organic, unprocessed, and biologically appropriate foods. Animals do as well. The laws of nature and the power of nutrition are universal for all living beings.

Even if you haven’t given this much thought, you’ve most likely considered this when deciding what types of meat are optimal for you and your family to consume. Why do you think grass-fed beef is healthier?

If we take a look at cows for example, their health has also deteriorated since the agricultural revolution. They used to be healthy and robust, grazing on their natural diet of grass.

Today, they consume feed full of grains, starches, and even meat products. These cause nutritional deficiencies, which weaken the immune system leading to infection and disease over time. This is the reason antibiotics must be administered on a regular and preemptive basis; otherwise the cows would be even sicker.

Now, take a look at the modern dog. They’re also chronically sick, whether they suffer from allergies, hot spots, reoccurring eye, ear, skin, yeast, or urinary tract infections. They too are afflicted with the same diseases of civilization. Enter diabetes, liver disease, cancers, and a host of other conditions. But that’s not all. They’re steadily becoming overweight and obese. Do you see the correlation here?

I’d like you to take an honest look at the health of your pets. Have you given much thought to what you feed them? If you follow an ancestral diet, shouldn’t they?
Reasons Why Your Dog Should be eating an Ancestral Diet

1. Pet food is processed

Pet food is extremely processed. It’s the equivalent of you eating fast food. Everyday.

Take a look at the deceptive images of fresh meats, fruits and vegetables displayed prominently on your chosen bag of kibble. Look at the end product.

Those smelly pellets aren’t anywhere close to real food, they’re also pumped full of preservatives. The last time I checked, dog food lasted far longer than your average box of crackers. Real food is perishable.

2. Pet food contains harmful chemicals

There are a ton of chemical ingredients in pet food that can cause liver disease, cancers and a range of other problems.

Some chemicals commonly found in pet food are additives, emulsifiers, anti caking and gelling agents, artificial coloring and flavors, drying and curing agents, humectants, grinding agents, leavening agents, palatants, lubricants, pelleting agents, petroleum by products, stabilizers, pH control, thickeners and texturizers.

3. Pet food is not biologically appropriate

Dogs are nearly identical to the wolf, genetically. If you take a look at the anatomy and physiology of the modern dog, it hasn’t changed much.

Many mistakenly assume dogs are omnivores since they currently consume an omnivorous diet. However, everything about them suggests they are still true carnivores.

This means that pet food is not a biologically appropriate food for them to consume. Pet food contains grains and starches and other carbohydrates in considerably higher quantities than meat.

This leads to nutritional deficiencies and a breakdown of the immune system over time because dogs cannot digest and assimilate the nutrition from these foods as efficiently as they can from raw meats, organs, and bones.

4. Pet food is in the wrong form

Pet food is also cooked. A dog’s natural diet consists of raw food. Raw food has high moisture content and contain valuable vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Cooking destroys some vitamins, minerals and enzymes, and drastically decreases the water or moisture content.

 5. Pet food ingredients are poor quality

Proponents for the pet food industry will refute this with advertising messages claiming nothing but the finest ingredients for pets. If this is true, why is pet food not fit for human consumption? We may not enjoy the taste, but if it’s made from the same quality ingredients we should be able to consume it without harm.

It’s because pet food is made from the food industry’s garbage, from food that cannot be passed as safe for human consumption. The protein found in pet food is rendered protein.

Rendered protein is essentially recycled animal meat. What’s in rendered meat? Dead and diseased farm animals are sent to rendering facilities. Euthanized animals are picked up by rendering services from your local veterinary office. These animals often still contain powerful drugs in their systems and are wearing flea and tick collars or other forms of identification. Restaurants even recycle rendered animal fat or vegetable fat and oils from grease traps. Even expired grocery store meat can be donated to rendering facilities.

6. Dogs are genetically closer to their ancestors than we are

It’s been cited that human DNA can range from 0.3 % – 2.0% in its similarity to primates and other early ancestors like Neanderthals.

The dog differs from the Gray Wolf at most by 0.2%. The modern dog is closer to the wolf than other wild animals in the dog family. In comparison, the coyote differs from the wolf by as much as 4.0%

Dogs may be even closer genetically to their ancestors than we are to our ancestors. Maybe this is an indication that they should also be following an ancestral diet.

7. Dogs have a predator’s build.

Our bodies hold clues into what we were designed to eat. Dogs have muscular and powerful bodies, compared to their body weight. They have predatory claws instead of hooves.

A dog’s shoulder blades are actually detached from it’s skeleton to allow for great flexibility and speeds while running after prey.

Their eyes are also located at the front of their skull, this is called forward facing binocular vision and it’s essential for predatory animals that rely on sight to catch prey. This is opposed to eyes that are positioned on the opposite sides of the head like many herbivores.

One last thing that goes without saying, dogs have a fantastic sense of smell and keen hearing, both important for hunting.

8. Dogs have a carnivore’s skull structure and teeth

Our skulls even contain interesting clues about our natural diets. The dog’s temporal bone does not permit lateral movement in the jaw. This means no chewing or side-to-side movement.

Despite what we like to think, our dogs do not chew. Kibble is never chewed but taken up whole and swallowed. Dogs instinctually rip, shred, tear, and swallow. Their jaws are able to open wide to gulp down larger chunks of food.

Have you ever noticed that dogs lack flat, square shaped molars? Their molars are jagged and pointed. The canine teeth are very well developed and are long, sharp, and curved. Incisors are also short, jagged, and pointed.

9. Dogs have a predatory mindset

We can easily see that dogs have a predatory nature. Dogs are more aggressive by nature than large herbivorous animals (think how low key a cow is). They require this predatory mindset because it’s geared for hunting, stalking, and killing prey. This prey drive is why dogs instinctively chase things, even if they’re just playing.

10. Dogs have a carnivore’s digestive tract

Perhaps one of the most important reasons to feed an ancestral diet is that dogs have the digestive tract of a carnivore.

At the very beginning of the digestive process, dogs lack salivary amylase, an enzyme found in omnivorous and herbivorous animals, that would normally begin the breakdown of food once it enters the mouth.

Dogs have larger, more elastic stomachs because they were designed to accommodate large meals (carnivores eat bigger meals less often where herbivores graze on smaller quantities of food more often).  In fact, their stomachs can hold 60-70% of the total volume of the digestive tract. Their stomach acid is very powerful; this higher concentration of hydrochloric acid kills bacteria and pathogens in raw meat.

Their intestines are short compared to the intestine length of plant eating animals. Herbivores and omnivores have smaller stomachs and long, complicated intestines. A dog’s short intestines and colon digest matter and pass food quickly because raw meat takes less time to digest than vegetables and must be passed at a faster speed to avoid putrefaction in the gut.

Where Can You Learn More About a Canine Ancestral Diet?

The ancestral diet for people is quite different than the ancestral diet for a dog. It wouldn’t make sense for us to throw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds our dog’s way because we’re omnivores.

A dog by default is a carnivore and should follow the ancestral diet of their carnivorous relatives for optimal health and well-being. This includes muscle meat, skin, bones, organs and other raw offal.

If you want to begin feeding your dog an ancestral diet, dive into learning all that you can about a raw feeding and raw diets for dogs. A great source is Primal Pooch, a primal living blog for dogs dedicated towards raw feeding, holistic health, exercise, activity, and dog sports. It’s time to take the principles of the Primal diet to get your dog on the health track too!

Kale, spinach, romaine, beet, apple, and blood orange smoothie.

I recently spent 4 days at an all-inclusive resort in Cabo San Lucas which means I probably drank more alcohol and ate more sugar than I did in the previous 11 months combined. When I got home I felt like I needed to load up on nutrient rich foods and particularly antioxidants to help detox and repair from the week of gluttony.

While the pastured meats, raw milk, and range of veggies I always eat are nutrient dense I felt I needed to get some more produce in my rotation. But, let’s be honest, I’m not going to sit down and eat that many fruits and vegetables each day. During the day I usually opt for fairly quick meals consisting of dinner leftovers or scrambled eggs. If I’m really busy (or lazy) I’ll just have a protein shake. So, I knew that I would fail if I tried to incorporate more produce by trying to make it into prepared meals.

I don’t believe in juicing because I feel you lose much of the nutritional value of the produce by only drinking the juice. So, I decided to try making produce smoothies with the goal of having one every day for a week. I’d attempted vegetable smoothies before and it didn’t go well so I wasn’t expecting this to be an enjoyable endeavor. However, with some small tweaks to how I was making the smoothies I enjoyed them so much that I’ve continued making them.

Here are my ten tips for making great tasting fruit and vegetable smoothies:

1. Add a pinch of sea salt. Salt enhances the flavor of the ingredients and adds minerals.
2. Include an ounce or two of kombucha. This adds flavor and makes the smoothie a probiotic drink to boot. Store bought or homemade kombucha will work.
3. Always include half a lemon or the equivalent in lemon juice. The acid is necessary to liven up the drink and enhance the flavors.
4. Use a ratio of 2 pieces of fruit to 4-5 cups of greens. If you’re new to eating a lot of vegetables you might want to have more fruit but ideally these should be vegetable smoothies with just enough fruit to sweeten them up but not make them a sugar bomb. I like to use one apple and one orange in combination with 4-5 cups of spinach, kale, lettuce, and celery as a base. Then I’ll add beets, carrots, tomatoes, or whatever else I have on hand to change up the flavor.
5. Blend in some ice. Trust me, you don’t want to drink a room temperature vegetable smoothie. They need to be ice cold to taste the best.
6. Use a blender that is up to the job. Without a blender that can handle ice and chop big chunks of veggies up, your smoothie experience will be less than pleasant. There are a lot of blenders out there that do a lot of awesome things and cost a lot of money, like the Vitamix. I don’t have one of those blenders. What I have is a much cheaper, simpler Ninja blender that is absolutely amazing. I’m pretty sure it could blend a set of Legos into a smoothie and it’s under $100.
7. When deciding what ingredients to use, use as many colors as you can. While you want to have a lot of leafy greens in your smoothies, you also want a range of colors to get more flavor. Think orange carrots, red beets, purple cabbage, etc. The more colors, the greater range of nutrients you’re getting and the better it will taste.
8. Go easy on the bananas. Bananas are great for a lot of things but they aren’t great in vegetable smoothies. Banana flavor is overwhelming and if you use an entire banana, that’s most likely all you will taste.
9. Throw in some vitamin C powder. Buffered vitamin C powder will add fizz to your smoothies while increasing the vitamin content. Vitamin C is used as an antioxidant by the adrenal glands so getting a little extra can help your body deal with stress better.
10. When deciding what ingredients to use in your smoothie, think about what would make a good salad. Start with a base of greens, then add accents.

Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to make your smoothies perfect, just make them! You’ll make mistakes and have awesome accidents, all of which you’ll learn from so you can consistently make better smoothies.

Pan seared sea bass with chive oil, garlic green beans, and kale salad with kombucha dressing.

I love kombucha. It helped me transition off of sugary drinks, helped my gain confidence when I learned I could brew it at home, and may be helping me have a healthy gut. But, the dirty little secret of people who continuously brew kombucha is that sometimes you end up with way too much if you aren’t drinking it fast enough. So I’ve been trying to find other ways to use my extra booch. I’ve watered my garden with it, given it to friends, and am considering trying it as a hair conditioner.

Last night I was making what I jokingly refer to as a “Chopped Dinner”, so named because I take whatever random ingredients I have in the fridge and throw together a meal sort of like the chefs on the show Chopped. I had a head of kale and green beans. I didn’t want to serve both as a side with our sea bass because that just seemed incongruent. So I decided to make a kale salad but groaned at the idea of another salad with balsamic and olive oil. We eat a lot of those and I wanted something different.

The jar I brew my kombucha in caught my eye and I thought “kombucha is vinegar…” and before I knew it I had a delicious salad that garnered more comments than the pan seared Chilean sea bass with homemade chive oil!

The kombucha I used was brewed with hibiscus leaves and flavored with a bit of fresh pineapple and peach juice. The flavor of the kombucha won’t matter much as you can’t really taste it, it just ads the tang you need to give the salad some dimension.

You can put whatever you want in your salad, but this dressing worked very well with the following mix.

Dressing

• Mix equal parts kombucha and olive oil.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• That’s it. Really.

I used 3 tablespoons of each, oil and kombucha, for the salad described below.

Salad

•  1 head of kale
• 1 carrot
• 1/4 cup of pistachios (shelled)
• seeds of 1/4 – 1/2 a pomegranate
• 3-4 green onions

Thinly chop the kale, removing the ribs. Julienne the carrot, or just chop into thin sticks. Thinly slice the white and light green parts of the onions. Mix the veggies with the pomegranate seeds, pistachios, and dressing. Enjoy!

I lost weight old-fashioned way by making wiser food choices, working out regularly, and counting calories. Counting calories was integral in my initial weight loss because it showed me how much I was really eating, and taught me what a serving size actually was. I now know what an actual serving of rice looks like compared to the two cups I wouldn’t think twice about eating before. Frequently now I will see someone eating a meal that is pushing 3,000 calories (usually of little to know nutritional value), knowing it’s just one of multiple large meals they will eat that day, and think with disbelief “that used to be me.”

I have to believe that most people have no idea how much they are really eating and would be shocked if they were shown. Studies show that people underestimate the calorie content of large meals by 23%.¹ This is the inspiration for the British show Secret Eaters which features people who say they cannot lose weight despite eating very little. They film the people 24 hours a day for a week and tally up how much they really eat to show them how they are underestimating their intake. Each episode starts and ends the same with the subjects saying they eat very little yet keep gaining weight then being shocked at how much they really do eat and making changes that help them lose weight. In this type of situation, calorie counting can be very beneficial to retrain people to see portions properly and pay more attention to their food choices.

After losing weight though, the next challenge begins as you try to maintain your new weight. I’ve been in maintenance mode for about three years now and it’s been a roller coaster ride. I’ve gained and lost the same 10 pounds over and over again. As soon as I stop weighing and measuring my food, despite knowing how much I should be eating, I gain weight and I gain it quickly. Then I get back on whatever my program du jour is (I’ve done low carb, no carb, high protein, high fat, calorie cycling, macronutrient cycling, eat more/move more, very low calorie, you name it) and within a few weeks I get back to a weight at which I’m comfortable. If I am really “good” and stick with it long enough, I can even reach a new low weight (at which point I promptly celebrate with food and say goodbye to that new weight).

There are many theories about why it’s so hard to maintain weight loss. One of the most popular is that our bodies have a “set point”, a weight at which your body will strive to stay whether that is the healthiest weight for you or not.² The idea is that your body desires homeostasis so after being at a certain weight for a long period, your metabolism will continue to keep you at that weight so you are neither losing nor gaining much, thereby achieving a stable condition. It’s been hypothesized you can reach a new set point by maintaining a lower (or higher) weight for an extended period of time, though no one can tell you how long you have to maintain that weight or how close you need to stay to that weight for your body to become comfortable there. I don’t know if we have a set point but I think there is a more likely explanation in most cases.

The Problem With Counting Calories

What calorie counting doesn’t teach us is why we eat. Why do we eat at certain times and why do we crave certain foods? We are rarely, if ever, truly hungry anymore. Most of us also have a very unhealthy relationship with food, thinking of it as something to abstain from or reward with, everything it isn’t, rather than as nourishment for our body and mind. This article says it wonderfully. Food has become an obsession for many, whether we admit it or even realize it and we’ve lost touch with what it really is and what it should be.

Counting calories or macros puts temporary restrictions in place, which may prevent us from eating during trigger times or from eating binge foods but that only lasts as long as we adhere to our self-imposed limits. When counting calories we also eat a certain amount regardless of hunger or lack thereof. If given a set number of calories to eat each day, we will most likely eat that much even if we are full after less. We will eat a snack between meals because it’s on the plan, even if we aren’t actually hungry. We will ignore what our bodies are telling us and will eat what we can instead of what we should. We may make healthy food choices and eat a healthy volume of food, but we are doing it because of external rules telling us when, what, and how much to eat rather than listening to our bodies.

If we don’t learn to stop and question if we are really hungry or if we are eating to avoid or experience a certain emotion, we will return to old habits soon after the temporary restriction of calorie or macro limits are removed. It may not happen immediately as we we’ll have developed new short-term habits but research shows it will happen. Soon I will reach for something to eat when I are bored and you will have the extra scoop of ice cream because your friend did, even though you only planned on having one. Over time those small steps back to our old eating habits add up and before you know it, you’ve gained back the weight you worked so hard to lose, and maybe more.

In order to maintain weight loss, we must reflect on why we eat as much as what we eat.

How Do We Change?

As with breaking any habit, you have to be very cognizant of your behavior. Each time you find yourself reaching for food and each time you do eat, stop and ask why you are eating. Are you actually hungry? If you aren’t, consider what you are feeling and what caused it. Ask if you can change that feeling by doing something productive. If you are angry, write your feelings rather than eating them. If you are bored, get up and do something even if you don’t feel like it right away. If you are tired, take a nap or just go to bed if it is nighttime. (We all know how important quality sleep is.) If you are like me and reach for a snack when work gets tedious, find ways to make it more fun. Can you challenge yourself to complete a task within a certain amount of time? Do you have a playlist of music that will lift your mood and push you through your slump? Can you get up and do jumping jacks or squats to get some endorphins flowing?

Don’t punish yourself for wanting to eat. Find an outlet that will make you feel better, not worse. Do whatever you need to do to put a more positive spin on your situation rather than eating something you’ll regret later, perpetuating the cycle of negative emotions.

Finally, sometimes we have negative emotions that may trigger us to eat and we just have to feel them. Be angry. Be grumpy. Be sad. Be whatever you are at the moment but be in the moment rather than pushing the feeling aside by eating something that makes you temporarily forget what you were feeling. It may be uncomfortable but you will be better for it in the end. We have emotions for a reason and ignoring them doesn’t improve our situation. If you allow yourself to feel what you are feeling you may grow from the experience and be able to avoid the same pain in the future which will perpetuate a cycle of positive emotions.

I’m almost two weeks into this process and I’ve lost 2 pounds by thinking more about why I’m eating than what I’m eating. Join me in focusing on why you eat and leave a comment below with your triggers and how you are dealing with them and the progress you make!

Sources:

¹Gore, J. M. (2006). Calorie underestimation. Journal Watch.Cardiology, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/JC200609200000005

²Keesey, Richard E., Hirvonen, Matt D. Body Weight Set-Points: Determination and Adjustment. The Journal of Nutrition. September 1, 1997 vol. 127 no. 91875S-1883S

Beef Stroganoff over Buttered Spaghetti Squash by MamaWithFlavor, on Flickr

Beef stroganoff is another one of those meals that conjures up memories of childhood dinners. I grew up eating stroganoff that was made with ground beef, a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup, and light sour cream served over egg noodles. I’ve tried to elevate the stroganoff of my childhood by making it with homemade mushroom soup without making it unaccessible to those without much time to cook or experience in the kitchen. If you can’t make your own mushroom soup, choose a canned brand with all-natural ingredients and no preservatives. I also serve stroganoff over vegetables rather than noodles to make it a gluten-free, lower carb meal.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 – 2 lbs cube steak or other steak sliced into thin strips
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup stock (beef, chicken, or vegetable will work)
• 1/4 cup kefir or sour cream
• 2 tbsp butter
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Generously season the steak with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a skillet and sear the steak. Remove the steak from the skillet, heat the second tbsp of butter, add the onions and sauté until soft. Return the steak to the pan, add the cream of mushroom soup and stock. Simmer 10-15 minutes or until the meat is cooked through. Add the kefir or sour cream just prior to serving.

Serve alone, with steamed broccoli and cauliflower, or over a noodle-like vegetable such as “zucchini fettuccine” or spaghetti squash.

Braised short ribs with sautéed carrots and brussels sprouts with leeks and garlic.

Most short ribs recipes are very similar. After searing the ribs, you cook carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and tomatoes or tomato paste to create a sauce. Time and time again I’ve followed recipes from big name chefs like Tom Colicchio only to feel let down by the lack of flavor in the sauce. Then one day when I wanted to make short ribs but didn’t have all of the vegetables I needed on hand, I had an epiphany. What is also made from carrots, celery, garlic, onions, and tomatoes and already has great flavor? Pasta sauce. So I decided to cut out the middle steps and use a jar of my favorite pasta sauce with no weird ingredients Rao’s Homemade Arrabbiata instead of trying to develop flavor from scratch. Lazy? Yes. Delicious? Absolutely. (This is an excellent recipe for impressing a date. He or she will think you slaved for hours in the kitchen. You can also make it a day before the date so you don’t smell like seared meat.)

Ingredients

2-4 pounds short ribs, cut into chunks with one bone per

12 ounces pasta sauce

1-2 cups red wine (any kind will work, I tend to use ones we didn’t like enough to drink)

1 cup broth

salt and pepper

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350˙ with the rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat an enameled cast iron or cast iron pot over high heat*. Generously salt and pepper one side of the ribs. Place the seasoned side of the ribs down in the preheated pot to sear, working in batches to prevent overcrowding. While that side is searing, season the side that is up. After the first side is seared, flip the ribs over and sear the other side. I also like to flip the ribs on end and sear every edge. Depending on how hot your pan is, you’ll need 3-7 minutes per side for a good sear. Don’t be afraid of cooking them too much. You really want the meat to crisp up so lock in the flavor. Move the seared ribs to a plate as you finish each batch.

When you are done searing the ribs, pour the wine into the pan to deglaze it, which is just a fancy word for “loosen up the delicious layer of flavor stuck to the pot”. Add the broth and pasta sauce and heat until boiling. Return the ribs to the pot. The liquid should come about half way up the ribs. If it doesn’t, add a little more wine, broth, and or sauce.

Cover the pot and place it in the oven and set your timer for 1 hour. Try not to eat everything else in the house while you suffer through the amazing smell as the ribs cook. Whatever you do, don’t leave the house and come back hours before dinner. This only makes the smell stronger and more mouth watering. Check on the ribs after an hour to make sure there is still enough liquid to keep the meat juicy. If there isn’t much liquid left, add some more of whatever you have left (wine, sauce, broth).

If you’ve planned ahead and made your ribs the day before, stop here. Remove the pan from the oven, let it cool, then place it in your fridge. Tomorrow, an hour before you want to eat,reheat your oven to 350˙,  pull the pan out of the fridge and scoop out the hardened fat. This will make your sauce less greasy. You can use this fat to cook a vegetable for a side to give it amazing flavor. Continue with the rest of the steps as though you didn’t plan ahead.

If you didn’t plan ahead (I never remember to**) or if you did and are on day two, set the oven timer for another 30 minutes. After the final 30 minutes are up, the meat should be tender but will probably not be falling off the bone (yet). Remove the lid and let the ribs cook uncovered for another 45 minutes or so until the sauce reduces to a fairly thick consistency. You’ll want to turn the ribs once or twice during this time so all sides get caramelized and extra delicious. Once the sauce has reached the desired thickness, remove the pot from the oven and separate the ribs from the sauce. You can try to remove some of the fat from the sauce here if you are concerned about the greasiness or you can just eat it as is. Trust me, it’s delicious either way.

Plate the ribs with sauce on top and serve with your sides of choice. I like to serve mine with crispy brussels sprouts or sautéed kale and mashed Japanese sweet potatoes or sautéed carrots. But really they go with everything so just use whatever you have on hand.

*If you are using cast iron, make sure the pot is well seasoned. You can add some oil or butter to protect the pot. If you do not have a cast iron or enameled pot, you can use another type of pot but you will want to add a small amount of oil or butter to prevent the ribs from sticking until they release some of their own fat.

**If I have time the day I want to have short ribs, I will make them in the morning, then move the sauce into a dish in the fridge for the afternoon so I can scoop out the hardened fat. This is a nice compromise between doing everything the day before and doing it at the last minute.

My back and shoulders after 3 months of weight training.

I’ve started and stopped more workout programs than I can count. For a couple of weeks I was a runner. In college I did the aerobics class version of kickboxing. A few years ago I did half of Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. With all of these programs I worked hard and felt great for a short period of time. Then when I didn’t see results or got bored, I quit. Does this sound familiar to you?

It wasn’t until I found weight training that I really fell in love with working out. Through heavy weight training (no 5 pound pink dumbbells here) I have been able to dramatically change my body while staying interested in working out. Weight training keeps me interested, not just because of the relatively quick changes in my physique, but also because of the consistent progression in performance which feeds my inner competitor.

With aerobics, while you can certainly improve your coordination and cardio capacity, there really isn’t any way easy to benchmark how you’re progressing. With running, you can get faster and go farther, but it takes a long time (at least for me) to see any significant improvement. However, with weight training you can consistently increase the weight you lift, sometimes in every workout but many times every week. That consistent reinforcement that I’m getting better at something keeps me motivated. And the competitive side of me loves challenging myself every time I decide how much weight to use on an exercise.

You can also see physical changes happening faster with weight training that you can with purely cardio workouts. While most women start working out to lose weight, in reality they just want to improve how they look. Doing an hour of cardio every day won’t result in any noticeable difference in your physique at the end of the week. But, I can see changes in my body every week by doing 30-60 minutes of heavy weight training 3-4 times a week. By building muscle, you not only boost your metabolism and reinforce your skeletal system to prevent fractures and osteoporosis¹. You also draw attention to areas of your body that will make you look thinner or more fit and deemphasize areas that need improvement. For instance, by building more muscular, defined shoulders you draw attention to your shoulders and your waist appears thinner. (And no, you won’t “look like a man” from doing resistance training. You would have to not only dedicate yourself to lifting very heavy weight very often but also supplement with testosterone to develop a male physique.)

With weight training you can also take advantage of nutrient timing to allow you to eat foods that you may not be able to eat as much of when trying to lose weight. Weight training depletes muscle glycogen stores which are rapidly refilled next time you eat. During this window, your muscles are very insulin sensitive so the nutrients you eat will be efficiently used to replenish glycogen and will not be used for fat storage, as long as you don’t eat considerably beyond what your muscles can store². You can use this window of opportunity to eat a large portion of your carbohydrates so you not only benefit from the temporary enhanced insulin sensitivity but but also from the reduction in insulin spikes throughout the rest of the day due to limiting carbohydrate intake at other meals. This is a “best of both worlds” scenario in which you get to have something sweet or higher in carbohydrates than you usually would when trying to lose weight.

If you’d like to see what my workouts look like, you can follow me on Fitocracy and I will follow back to encourage you in your quest for fitness. If you’re new to weight training and want to learn about how to build a great body, check out this ebook preview of Strong Curves: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Better Butt and Body.

1. Schmiege, S. J., Aiken, L. S., Sander, J. L., & Gerend, M. A. (2007). Osteoporosis prevention among young women: Psychosocial models of calcium consumption and weight-bearing exercise. Health Psychology, 26(5), 577-587. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.26.5.577

2. Jensen, T. & Richter, E. Regulation of glucose and glycogen metabolism during and after exercise. Physiol March 1, 2012 590 (5) 1069-1076; published ahead of print December 23, 2011, doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2011.224972

Since skin is our largest organ and is absorbent, I decided I didn’t want to use anything on my body that I wouldn’t eat. My first change was to stop using fluoridated toothpaste. I started using OraWellness organic dental products and my teeth and gums have never been healthier (confirmed by my dentist). Since that switch was so successful, I decided to find natural alternatives to everything in my beauty routine. My favorite alternatives are listed below. If you have some favorites, add them in the comments!

Moisturizer: Coconut oil is a wonderful moisturizer that absorbs well into the skin. It also smells fantastic. Rubbing coconut oil on my skin always makes me feel like I’m on vacation. Coconut oil also has antimicrobial properties, thanks to the lauric acid content, which make it extremely beneficial for acne prone skin.¹ Coconut oil doesn’t work well under makeup but you can use it at night or on days that you don’t wear makeup to get a great moisture boost.

Dandruff treatment: Many people think that dandruff is caused by your scalp being dry, and for some people this is true. However, a major cause of dandruff may be a fungus called malassezia.² This fungus is found on the scalp of most people, however it may be more prolific on some people or the immune system of sensitive people may overreact to the fungus. If this happens, the turnover (growth and death) of the skin on your scalp may happen too quickly, resulting in those embarrassing flakes. Whether fungus or dryness is causing your dandruff, the treatment is the same. Rub coconut oil on your scalp and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. The lauric acid in the coconut oil will help keep the fungus under control. For a conditioning hair treatment at the same time, coat the full length of your hair with coconut oil. When you’re ready to wash it out, shampoo your hair twice to get all of the oil out before conditioning. An optional additional step that I’ve found helpful for most people is to rinse your scalp with apple cider vinegar before you condition. The vinegar will help normalize the pH of your scalp and further prevent dandruff. Doing this treatment once a week for severe dandruff will keep the flakes at bay.

Teeth whitener and skin exfoliant: I love having white teeth but my teeth are very sensitive so I can’t use commercial whiteners. Commercial whiteners can also be expensive and they contain things like carbamide peroxide which can cause chemical burns if not used properly. For a few cents you can make a natural and very effective tooth whitener from a tablespoon of aluminum-free baking soda and a squeeze of lemon juice. Dip an old toothbrush in the paste and gently brush your teeth. The baking soda is abrasive and will remove tough stains while the acidity of the lemon juice will help brighten your teeth. You don’t want to do this daily as you could eventually damage your enamel but once every month or two is plenty to keep your teeth looking great.

Deodorant: This is my favorite one. Most deodorants are so full of things I can’t pronounce and really don’t want soaking into my skin on a daily basis. But, most natural deodorants either don’t work very long or end up making you smell worse. I recently discovered that rubbing the pulp side of a wedge of lime or lemon on your underarms is a fantastic deodorant. It works all day long and even keeps me smelling fresh through hour-long workouts. The citric acid helps neutralize the bacteria in sweat that cause odors so you’re not just masking the smell. Obviously there is no anti-perspirant property here so you will still sweat, but you’ll smell like a rose lime.

1.Research on antimicrobials described by scientists at University of California, Department of Medicine. Biotech Week. (Oct. 20, 2010) p1828. Scientists discuss in ‘Antimicrobial property of lauric acid against Propionibacterium acnes: its therapeutic potential for inflammatory acne vulgaris’ new findings in antimicrobials.

2. Hay, R.J. (2011), Malassezia, dandruff and seborrhoeic dermatitis: an overview. British Journal of Dermatology, 165: 2–8. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.2011.10570.x

Sriracha seared albacore, greens, apple, leek asian salad, and roasted brussels sprouts.

Ingredients:

Fish

• (2) 4 to 6 ounce sashimi grade albacore filets
• 2 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce (or homemade sriracha) per piece of fish
• Salt & pepper

Salad

• 1 large or two medium leeks, sliced
• 2 cups mixed greens
• 1 julienned apple (Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, or similar variety)
• butter or coconut oil for sautéing

Salad Dressing 

• 1 tbsp gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos
• 1 tbsp ponzu (without soy sauce, omit soy sauce if using ponzo with soy sauce)
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Coat each piece of albacore on all sides with Sriracha then generously season with salt and pepper. Start with a hot pan then turn the heat to medium after you start searing. Sear the albacore on all sides for about 1 minute per side, depending on the thickness of your filets. Ideally the fish should be raw but slightly warm in the center as shown in the photo above.

Sauté the sliced leeks in butter or coconut oil until crispy. Toss the mixed greens in the dressing and layer with the apples. Top the salad with the crispy leeks.

Serve with your vegetable of choice such as crispy brussels sprouts, sesame broccoli, or bok choy.