Whole 30 Tips

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to record a Webinar with Leah from Brisbane Paleo Family and Emmely Rackemann Health Coach.  We discussed our whole 30 experiences and our tips to succeeding throughout the 30 days.  Be sure to have a listen, it's free and leave your own handy hints in the comments section.  Knowledge is power.  Also be sure to follow me on instagram for more meal inspiration.  My username is cat_keast.  See you there.

Homemade Hollandaise

How are you all?

It has been a while since any sort of update from me and for that I am sorry.  I can explain.  You see my health has improved so much that life has become very very busy.  I finally left my job in Intensive Care at the end of October and began a new career path in Oncology Nursing.  I now no longer work night shifts, or weekends and the latest I finish work is 1700.  I am beyond excited for what that means for my health. 

Towards the end of last year I also managed to complete the Brisbane Neon Run which was a 5km route to raise money and awareness for Beyond Blue.  I walked the full 5km without stopping which is a HUGE undertaking, considering that only weeks- months before I was crippled with arthritis pain and crying if I had to walk any further than 10 metres.  So another huge goal ticked off. 

I've also been getting more adventurous with my cooking as I continue on my Paleo journey.  I to date have lost 23 kgs and feel a million dollars for it.  My inflammatory markers are continuing to drop and life is good.  I am now trying a low carb high fat approach to my diet and have entered a state of nutritional ketosis.  The goal with this is that it will help reduce my inflammation further and put my autoimmune arthritis into remission.  One challenge with eating low carb high fat when you are dairy free, is getting enough good fat in.  This morning I achieved this by making hollandaise to have with my poached eggs.  It is made on ghee so all the milk solids have been removed making it perfect fuel for us Paleo guys and girls. 

100g ghee
2 egg yolks
0.5 tablespoon lemon juice

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil on the stove. 
Get a heat safe bowl which fits snuggly on the top of the boiling water
Place the Lemon Juice and egg yolk in the bowl and whisk
Then place the bowl over the boiling water and continuously whisk until thickened (it will have doubled in volume), don't over cook or the egg will scramble.
Take the bowl off the saucepan
Slowly pour warm ghee in to the bowl whilst continuously whisking.  The ghee should be warm but not hot or this will scramble the egg. 
Season with salt.
Serve and Enjoy

Homemade Ghee

Missing butter while paleo and not tolerating milk solids? trying to increase your fat intake while ketogenic? How about making your own ghee and saving money at the supermarket in the process?

I used Mainland (NZ) organic butter.

Place your pyrex jug in the steaming basket on your steamer and slowing simmer the water. The butter will slowly melt. As it melts the milk solids will sink to the bottom. Once it has fully melted and the milk solids have settled, then pour off the ghee and discard the milk solids. Now you have perfect, wholesome, delicious ghee.

I use the ghee to cook my chicken, fish and veggies in. It is also fantastic with sautéed garlic and then drizzled over chicken for a chicken kiev type dinner.

What do you use ghee for? Or butter if you tolerate the milk solids.

 

 

Tips for Succeeding on a Paleo Journey

I am now on day 67 of my whole 30 journey and I continue to enjoy the experience. To date I have lost 14.1 kgs (30 lbs) in 60 days and I continue to feel much better. A couple of weeks ago I actually forgot to give myself my arthritis injection as I was feeling so good. Previously that would have been unheard of and I would have been watching the calendar and crossing my fingers for a few days relief from all the pain.

For me the secret to success has been being organised. As a shift worker I have to have my meals planned, shopping done and as much food prep done as possible. Often before a series of shifts I will prepare a few days worth of meals in advance. Meal planning and shopping lists are therefore essential. Before heading out in the car to the shops, I have my lists broken into sections and I know exactly where I will get each item.  By doing this it guarantees that I am not wasting time running all over the city.   I also order some things online and have them delivered straight to the house.  This is perfect for saving time and a lot of money.  I shop from iherb and I have my delivery from USA to Australia in less than a week.  If you use code JMR789 of your first order you will get $5-10 off.

I have a few trusty meals that I turn to when I need to make something quickly, however I am mindful that in the past I have become bored with meals being repeated too often. I now have quite the collection of Paleo cookbooks and I am loving having them to flick through, cook from and use for inspiration.

What are your favourite cookbooks?

Here are some of mine

Against All Grain,
 
Well Fed,

Nom Nom Paleo,
 
and in less than a week Danielle Walkers new book Against All Grain: Meals Made simple hits the book shelves. I am so excited about this cookbooks release that I have had it on pre order since July. Danielle's first book was my first paleo cookbook and it helped me to fall in love with this way of life. We have a very similar health journey and I took inspiration from her health progress. If you get a chance I highly recommend checking this book out Against All Grain.

Do you have any tips for success in the kitchen?

Slow Cooked Whole Chicken

While on my Whole30 journey I have become more adventurous in the kitchen, however I still want good old wholesome food, like roast chicken and gravy.  Currently it is winter in Queensland so using the oven isn't any bother, however I am always looking for ways to cook my favourite foods without causing the house to overheat in summer.  Today I decided to play around with my Slow cooker and a whole chicken.  I was a little nervous that the chicken wouldn't cook properly but I shouldn't have worried, it was perfect and delicious.  Recipe below.

Ingredients

1 x Whole free range chicken (I had a 2kg chicken)
2 x onions roughly chopped
1 large Spring onion or 2 small spring onions
1 carrot roughly chopped 
4 cloves of garlic
500mls vegetable or chicken stock
2 tablespoons Ghee
Smoked Paprika
Salt and Pepper

Add one tablespoon of ghee to your slow cooker on browning function and allow to melt.  Lightly cooked the onion, spring onions, carrot and garlic.  Once the onion has become translucent add the 500mls of stock and salt and pepper to taste.  In the mean time rub 1 tablespoon of ghee over your chicken and then liberally sprinkle smoked paprika and rub in. 

Place your chicken breast side down in the mixture of stock and vegetables.  Switch your slow cooker to LOW, place the lid and cook for 6 hours.  A smaller chicken will take less time. 

Please make sure that your chicken is fully cooked before serving.  The juices from the chicken should run clear and the meat should be white the whole way through. 

For the gravy, simply use a stick blender and blend the mixture of stock and vegetables.  If too runny then place some in a pan on the stove and bring to the boil, this will allow it to reduce to a gravy consistency.  Serve with vegetables of your choice and enjoy.  We had roast parsnip, carrot, onion, capsicum and kumara tossed in oil and mixed herbs then oven roasted. 

Bone Broth

Bone broth is something which features quite regularly in our meals here in the Keast household.  It is common to find half the freezer filled with tubs of this good stuff.  In fact prior to my surgery in May I made up lots to aid my recovery. 

What is so good about Bone Broth I hear you ask.  Here are just some of the amazing things about this amazing diet staple.

Firstly you will have made it yourself so you will know exactly what is in it! More on that later..

Bone broth is fantastic for aiding with healing.  There really is some truth in the saying "Chicken soup is good for the soul" and also why when we are unwell our bodies often crave soup.  It will help it fight infection and also help to fight inflammation (which was music to me with all my autoimmune issues).  It is so useful for all this healing because it contains arginine which is an amino acid, used in cell division, wound healing, removing ammonia from the body and boosting immune function.  Another amino acid found in bone broth is glycin, this is particularly useful as it has a calming effect on the body which is beneficial for sleep. 

Bone broth also contains many valuable minerals, these include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, glucosamine and chondroitin and also a few trace minerals.  In the broth all of these minerals are in a form that is easily absorbed by the body and therefore easily used by the body.  The absorption of these minerals will aid in having strong bones, reduce inflammation and pain in joints, healthy.

Gelatin is also found in bone broth, when ingested gelatin helps to control digestive juices as it attracts and holds juices.  This is useful in appropriate digestion.  Gelatin is also very useful in hair and nails, many who take gelatin will have extremely health hair and nails. 

This is definitely something I recommend you add into your diet.  Often I am ask if increasing the amount of stock e.g from store bough stock or stock cubes is ok.  The answer is no, it is not the same as making your own broth.  I have taken a couple of photographs of the ingredients list in store bought stock and we can compare it to what is needed to make your own. 


Below are some photographs that I took of mainstream stocks from in my local supermarkets.  Click the pictures to see the image a little larger.

The 2nd one in particular has me scratching my head.  Ingredients are listed in order of most prevalent in the product.  Salt is number one!!! I am at a loss for words when I see that sugar has been added to these stocks, caramel food colouring, rice flour, maize and other things I can not even pronounce.  You do not need to use these products and I will show you how to make your own and even better it freezes well whilst helping to heal your body and help every single cell function to the best of it's ability.

Firstly to make bone broth you need

Approximately 1kg mix of meat bones and marrow bones.  Do not skimp on the marrow bones.  Most butchers will have these.  I make sure mine are from grass fed organic animals.
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves roughly chopped
2 sticks of celery, rough chopped
1 Leak, washed and chopped
Mixed herbs
2 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar
Water.

I make my bone broth in the slow cooker but I have previously done it on the stove top.  I'm just more comfortable with leaving something unattended in the slow cooker.

I add a tablespoon of ghee or oil of your choice to the slow cooker and have the browning function on.  I sauté the onion, carrot, celery and leak for a couple of minutes.  In this picture I have also add some parsnip.

Then I add the bones and a good pinch of mixed herbs.  Followed by 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar - do not skip this part, the apple cider vinegar helps to extract the minerals from the bones without altering the taste of your broth. 

I then add enough water to cover all the ingredients, place the lid and set the slow cooker to LOW and leave it for minimum 12 hours, often I will simmer it for 24 hours.  If you are doing it on the stove place a lid on your pot and let it lightly simmer on low for the same length of time.

Once the 12-24 hours are up I then strain my broth.  All of the flavouring will be gone from your veg into your broth so you don't need to keep it.  I just sieve the broth and then place it in a tub in the fridge overnight.  In the morning you will find that the fat has gone to the top and can be lifted off and your broth should have set.  If it hasn't do not panic, it just means that there wasn't enough gelatin in your bones but the broth is still good and still packed full of all those minerals.  I then portion my broth into 1 cup amounts and freeze.  In the fridge it will keep for a few days, in the freezer it will be a few months. 

Ideas for using your broth include

- Drinking it straight.  I had to work up to this as at first I found the flavour too strong, now I love it.
- Use it as the base for a soup
- I use mine to cook bolognaise, I add the broth straight from the freezer to my pot of mince and veggies and then add some tomatoes. 
- I also use it to slow cook some other meats in.
- As the base of a stew.

Enjoy making your bone broth.  Let me know how you go. 

Whole30 - the Why's and the results

I'm sure you have heard of the phrase "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade".  I finally reached that point towards the end of June.  As I previously mentioned, I heard from my immunologist that my maxed out arthritis medication had stopped working.  It was hard to hear and it was yet another lemon thrown right at me.  Here are some of the previous lemons I had been dealt, it will help you to understand why I made the decision to do whole30. 
You can buy the book It starts with food here and learn why it is so important to remove certain things like grains and dairy from our diet. The book is inexpensive and easy to understand. I recommend it to everyone.

For 7 years I have battled autoimmunity.  Early January 2007 I was admitted to hospital via ambulance directly from my GP's rooms.  I was rushed to theatre for exploratory surgery which is when it was discovered that my gut had ruptured in more places than they could count.  Prior to this I had been fit and well and just felt a bit off for a couple of months. I had worked right up until 2 weeks prior to this.  That night in theatre I lost a large section of bowel, and when I woke up in ICU the next day I was told that I had chrohns disease, I had lost over 1 metre of bowel, I had multiple fistula's, the night before I had been 12 hours from death but I somehow pulled through (Praise God). I didn't understand.  No one else in my family had an inflammatory bowel diseases.  I had immigrated to Australia as a newly wed only 6 months prior.  How can this have happened?

I went on to spend 2 weeks in ICU as the infection just would not break and it compromised my blood pressure and heart rate hourly.  In the end I had 70% muscle wastage, I was fed via an IV with TPN for 7 weeks, I spent 6 months of 2007 in hospital over 8 admissions - 2 months straight on one of those occassions, I spent 9 months in a wheelchair and had random members of the public yell abuse at me because they viewed me as not physically disabled but mentally.  I spent many more week and months in hospital after 2007 and I have had a total of 6 laparotomies to get me to where i am today.

I have also been pumped full of steroids like you couldn't imagine.  As a result my weight has gone up and down more times than a yo yo in the 1960's when they made a resurgence. The only time I ever lost any weight was with excessive exercise and starvation which you guessed it made me sicker. At the end of June this year I had reached my heaviest ever and I was pretty miserable about it.  Life was more difficult than it needed to be, my joints were suffering more than they had to and my depression was definitely taking a hit. 

The news from my immunologist was just one too many curve balls.  I was not going back down the road of hospitalisation, pain, IV's surgery.  I needed to find something to help and find it quickly.  Enter paleo which I had flirted with for about a year but never stuck to for more than 2 weeks at a time.  What was going to be any different this time? I was devastated that at 32 my doctors couldn't get me painfree or even walking semi normally.  That was to be my motivation and motivate me it did! Tuesday past was my last day on Whole30 and I am feeling a lot better.  I am sleeping better, my skin is clear, I feel happy,  my energy levels are better, I can get out of bed before 11am these days, hello 7 and 8 am! (I have chronic fatigue or maybe that is had), I don't need 3 hour afternoon naps and I can walk down the stairs like a normal person without crying out in pain. My joints are improving. I had my blood inflammatory markers taken at the 3 week point and they have started to drop, the only change was whole30.

On Wednesday (day 31) I weighed myself and I was 8kgs  (17.6 lbs)down!!! Yup 8kgs in 30 days and I haven't been starved (look at my instagram account cat_keast and you will see I have feasted for 30 days). I went to the gym once when tiger blood hit so it definitely isn't from the excessive exercise that I once had to do.

I feel good and for that reason I am continuing on until the end of August.

Are you interested in doing a Whole30? Let me know in the comments section and we can support each other through it.  It is only 30 days and you have so much to gain.