Brain Octane Oil Review

[easyazon_link identifier=”B00P8E0QQG” locale=”US” tag=”mcurle08-20″ cart=”n”]Bulletproof Brain Octane Oil, Reliable and Quick Source of Energy (16 Ounces)[/easyazon_link][easyazon_image align=”right” cart=”n” height=”500″ identifier=”B00P8E0QQG” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41N1yRIPzKL.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”500″]

Brain Octane Oil Review

Name:Bulletproof XCT oil, Reliable and Quick Source of Energy (32 Ounces)
Website: Amazon.com
Price: $21.49
Owners: Dave Asprey
Overall Rank: 70 out of 100

Brain Octane Oil, Product Overview

This product is marketed to consumers as increasing your brain function. It is said that it is quick source of energy and transforms into ketones in the body quickly.

The Good & the Bad

The Good: Brain Octane Oil has medium chain triglycerides

PRO #1: You’ll get fats from medium chain triglycerides.
PRO #2: The body may use this source of fuel before breaking down carbohydrates and sugars.
PRO #3: Consuming oil does provide a source of energy for your body and you may not need to eat as much.

The Bad: Very refined product.

CON #1: This product is highly refined. It is not a naturally occurring product.
CON #2: Whether your body breaks down the oil into ketones quickly will depend more on whether you are consuming high amounts of carbohydrates and your body is already in ketosis.

Who is Brain Octane Oil For?

The people who would be most interested in Brain Octane oil are Dave Asprey’s followers and people who are on the ketogenic diet and are utilizing fats for fuel instead of carbohydrates.

Brain Octane OIl Price

Brain Octane oil sells for $23.50 per bottle. It is a reasonable price for a supplement. The bottle will last you about a month, so it isn’t an extremely high cost.

My Final Opinion of Brain Octane Oil

I tried Brain Octane Oil for a month and the month that I was testing it out, I did experience a seizure. I was very disappointed that the product did not prevent the seizure, since it is supposed to encourage the body’s production of ketones for fuel.

I only used this product for a month, but I did not notice the reported effects that Dave Asprey mentions. I didn’t experience an increase in clarity of thought or mental performance. I didn’t notice any higher energy levels, although my energy levels are pretty good as they are.

Brain Octane Oil at a Glance…

Name: Bulletproof XCT oil, Reliable and Quick Source of Energy (32 Ounces)

Website: amazon.com
Owners: Dave Asprey
Price: $21.49
Overall Scam Rank: 70 out of 100

VERDICT: LEGIT!

 

I think this is a legitimate version of MCT oil. It will provide your body with energy because it is an oil and full of fat. However, I do think that it overpromises and underdelivers! I think that if you are already following a ketogenic diet, you are probably producing plenty of ketones without this special brain octane oil. Additionally, if you are following the ketogenic diet, you have good energy levels and clarity of thought.

 

Drinking Lemon Water to Lose Weight – Is it a myth?

Water is the basis of all life and that includes your body. Your muscles that move your body are 75% water; your blood that transport nutrients is 82% water; your lungs that provide your oxygen are 90% water; your brain that is the control center of your body is 76% water; even your bones are 25% water. A 12-ounce can of soda contains around 150 calories and up to 40 grams of sugar. Drinking one a day means ingesting more than 130,000 extra calories a year, or 15 pounds of added fat ! Many people hail the benefits of drinking water to lose weight, but is this just a myth or is there some substance to the theory? Does adding a lemon to the water help you to lose the weight?

As someone who only drinks water and doesn’t have a ton of weight to lose, I had to rely on my experience with the personal training clients and friends who actually took my advice to switch to water drinking only. One of my friends, who was over 300 pounds at one point actually did follow my advice to drink half of his body weight in ounces. What happened? Months later, he told me that he had lost fifty pounds! He hadn’t started exercising or anything else, he just increased his water intake because I told him to do so. So, I don’t believe that drinking water to lose weight is a myth.

Lemon Water Health Benefits

Lemon water has a lot of health benefits that people cite. The following are some of the benefits that you may notice by increasing your consumption of lemon water. Some of these benefits are due to the increase of water consumption and some benefits can be attributed to the vitamins and nutrients in the lemon.

  • Improve digestion
  • Speeds up metabolism
  • Improves depression
  • Improves skin vitality
  • Reduces inflammation
  • Wards off cancer
  • Prevent back pain
  • Heal arthritis
  • Prevent migraines

Replacing Other Beverages With Water

Water has no calories, which other beverages tend to have, therefore leading drinks like soda and juice to increase your daily caloric load. Not only are these beverages higher in calories, but they are also higher in carbohydrates. When your body has too many carbohydrates, it uses them as fuel and stores the excess as fat. Your body can not do that with water, since it has no calories.

Take soda, for example, one twelve ounce soda has about 150 calories and approximately forty grams of sugar! By drinking one can of soda per day, it means that you are drinking an average of 130,000 additional calories each year. That can be turned into fifteen pounds of fat! By replacing your daily can of soda, you will avoid adding those extra inches to your waistline.

While drinking lemon water alone may not lead to weight loss, when you are replacing higher carbohydrate and higher calorie beverages, you reduce the number of calories that you consuming. Reducing your calorie and carbohydrate load will lead to weight loss.

Drinking Lemon Water Prior to a Meal

When you drink lemon water will have an impact on your digestion. If you drink lemon water prior to a meal, you will feel more satiated and need fewer calories to feel full. This can lead to a reduction in your overall carbohydrate and calorie consumption which can trigger weight loss.

The evidence on drinking water prior to a meal is scant, but there is a study published in the journal, Obesity, that may support this theory. Researchers randomly divided overweight older men and women into two separate groups. Both groups were put on a hypocalorie diet, meaning they were consuming fewer calories than their energy expenditure. However, one group was told to increase how much water they drank. Those in the group on a diet and increasing water consumption had to drink 500 ml of water thirty minutes before each of their three large meals. After twelve weeks, it was determined that the group who had drank water prior to their meals had on average lost an additional four pounds (2kg) compared to those who were only on the hypocalorie diet.

Drinking Lemon Water Aids Digestion

Many people claim that lemon water helps to improve your digestion and have noticed that bloating goes down when you drink lemon water. Improved digestion can help aid in weight loss. As your body becomes more efficient with its digestive abilities, it is able to eliminate toxins instead of holding on to them. This could assist you in your weight loss goals.

Lemon juice’s atomic structure is very similar to the body’s digestive juices in the stomach. It is theorized that it tricks the liver into producing bile. This helps keep the food moving through your body and its gastrointestinal tract. This can relieve indigestion and ease and upset stomach.

Lemon juice’s acids can also encourage your body to digest food more slowly. This allows for drawn-out absorption and means insulin levels remain steady and you get more nutrients out of the foods you consume. Better nutrient absorption reduces bloating. Lemon water benefits the enzyme functions in your body, stimulating the liver and flushing out toxins. Because it’s a mild diuretic, you might find yourself using the bathroom more often, helping the urinary tract get rid of any unwanted elements. With these bodily systems working better, it is likely that your body will be able to eliminate toxins and waste better.

Water Boosts Metabolism

While the lemon in the water may not increase your metabolism, it has been shown that drinking water boosts your metabolism. According to a study which was published in “Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism” in 2003, it was discovered that the metabolic rate of adults increased 30 percent after they drank two glasses of water. This effect lasted between 10 and 40 minutes following their water consumption. Therefore, scientists conclude that drinking 8 glasses of water a day can increase your body’s ability to burn calories. Drinking lemon water, which involves just lemon juice and water alone, would add to your daily consumption of water. Increasing your metabolism, or your body’s ability to burn calories will help you to lose weight. This is just one way to do it.

 

 

 

 

How I Stopped Drinking Soda

[easyazon_image align=”right” cart=”n” height=”500″ identifier=”B01M25WHRM” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51uu11NV4ZL.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”313″]Most of us are well aware that the ingredients in soda and diet soda are not doing anything to promote our health. However, a lot of people are still addicted to their daily soda pop. This includes some wonderful people like my father, who would prefer to go see a variety of doctors than quit his daily coke habit. (Oh geez, that makes him sound like a drug addict. Good thing he doesn’t read this blog.) But seriously, the chemicals in soda are not natural and most likely are causing incremental damage to your health.

I stopped drinking soda and carbonated beverages about a decade ago. For me, I was having terrible teeth problems. I had two root canals within the space of two years! I was desperate to change something in my life that was causing these issues because my dentist had prescribed an extra strength flouride toothpaste and I still had massive sensitivity in my teeth. I knew that my seizure medications could cause gum damage, but at the time, I didn’t think I could get off of them.

One day, when I was in the grocery store, I read a book about the miracles of coconut oil. This got me to thinking about changing my diet in order to fix my teeth problems. I started looking online for remedies and low and behold, there were tons of recommendations for alternatives to the dentist!

I started implementing and testing out these different things, some of which worked and others did not. One of the biggest recommendations across the board was to give up soda pop! My addiction to soda pop was not very strong at the time, but I recall enjoying soda with friends at events. The Mormon church always had functions where they served soda because the Mormons don’t drink alcohol. Their preferred indulgence is sugar! I knew that going to events with my Mormon friends was going to be more challenging.

Make the Decision to Quit

Every change in life starts with the decision. I made a conscious decision that soda was not going to be part of my diet. I knew that it wasn’t good for me and was likely creating more problems in my life than anything else.

Making the decision and being firm about it in your mind and actions is the first step. It is the most important step. If you decide that it is still okay to have once in awhile, you’ll backslide and eventually end up back on the stuff. If you don’t think you have the willpower to quit for life, make the goal time sensitive. I won’t drink soda for a week. That can seem more reasonable and manageable to someone who is very addicted to caffeine and soda pop.

Learned about the Health Benefits

After I decided that I was going to change my lifestyle and eliminate soda from my diet, I reinforced that decision by learning about the benefits of quitting soda. I listed some of them on a sheet of paper. I wanted to know that I was going to get something out of the effort of changing my beverage choices. Change isn’t always something that most people want to do. Let’s face it, drinking soda is tasty and sometimes fun with friends.

Read Up on the Cons of Soda

I know that I am someone who is more likely to avoid negative consequences than to work hard for benefits. After reading up on the benefits of quitting soda, I went online and read about how soda was detrimental to my health. I googled “side effects of drinking soda.” As I discovered more and more about the awful impacts of the ingredients on my health, it solidified my resolve to give up soda pop for good.

What to Drink Instead

Unfortunately, in all of my research on tooth health and healing teeth naturally, I found out that the best thing to drink is going to simply be water. Beverages such as juice contain a good amount of sugar, which has a negative impact on your body as well.

However, by switching your beverage to water only, you end up gaining a lot of health benefits. Your cells stay hydrated and they function so much better. You are able to sleep better and function better. Skin health improves almost immediately when you are fully hydrated. Ugh, water? All the time?! How boring, I thought. I’m sure that you may be thinking the same thing. But it improved my overall health and wellness.  

 

 

 

 

 

Natural Cures for Epilepsy That You Can Start Now

If you ask a neurologist, they will tell you there are no natural cures for epilepsy. However, you must understand the source. Doctors are trained in medicine. They know medicine well and they understand it. They are going to prescribe medicine before trying any type of home remedy or natural cure. Using the word “cure” is a bit tricky as well. There are a lot of legal implications to curing something and proving that it works is very expensive.[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”500″ identifier=”1489569987″ locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513jdxBM0KL.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”313″]

So, while I’m going to share with you the natural cures for epilepsy that I implemented into my life, you may discover that you need to tweak them a bit to fit into your treatment plan. They may not be a comprehensive cure for you, but they definitely can help you to get healthier and happier in the process.

 

The Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic diet is the treatment of last resort for doctors. They test out a few different anti-convulsants first and then if those don’t work, they go to the tried and true, ketogenic diet. They will recommend the ketogenic diet for very young patients because they feel like the parents have more control over the food and compliance with the diet will be easier. For me, I was simply told at 13 years of age that the diet won’t work for me.

The ketogenic diet is gaining steam and popularity. There is absolutely no reason not to try the ketogenic diet. People are losing weight with it, it has a low glycemic index and prevents and reverses diabetes and has been shown to prevent seizures. The ketogenic diet does not need to be started in a hospital and strictly monitored. You can do research online and start it at home. I have even written a great blog post on how to get started on the ketogenic diet.

What type of results can you expect from the ketogenic diet? Research has shown it to work in about half of the patients with epilepsy. For a few patients, they became 100% seizure free. Other patients were able to reduce their seizures by about 50%. For someone who truly wants to cure their epilepsy naturally, this is a great step. It is inexpensive and only requires and adjustment in your eating habits.

Need help getting started on the ketogenic diet? Try the free Bacon and Butter ebook. It is loaded with recipes and instructions that will get you started on the healing ketogenic diet. It is also available in print if you pay for shipping.

 

Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet

The Gut ans Psychology Syndrome Diet is another diet that is aimed at healing and sealing the gut in order to address neurological and psychological symptoms. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, who is a neurosurgeon, created the Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet as a way to heal her son of Autism. This diet can heal one of the [easyazon_image align=”left” cart=”n” height=”500″ identifier=”0954852028″ locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518j6rvvLlL.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”352″]contributors of seizures, which is a leaky gut. A leaky gut can leak toxins into your blood stream, which may cross the blood brain barrier and trigger a seizure in the brain. Fixing a leaky gut can improve your overall health and even cure autoimmune conditions.

When Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s son was diagnosed with autism, she became determined to help him. She went back to school and earned a degree in nutrition in order to heal her son, who she claims has been healed of Autism. Her book is very detailed about the mechanisms of a leaky gut and how to address it.

The Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet is a very structured diet. She recommends staying on it for 2 years. However, my willpower only made it through about 4 months on the diet. I have a weakness for sweets! While on the diet, I did feel very healthy. It eliminates starchy foods and sugars. She also emphasizes restoring the good bacteria in the gut through fermented foods.

 

Buteyko Breathing Exercises For Epilepsy

This is my favorite natural cure and one that I discovered almost by accident. Buteyko breathing exercises slow down your rate of breathing in order to encourage more oxygenation of the body. It is theorized by Buteyko that diseases begin because the body is deficient in oxygen. You can easily figure out Buteyko breathing exercises through videos and reading up on them. They do take some time to do, but you will discover higher levels of health than you ever imagined as you do them.

Why do I list this as a natural cure for epilepsy? When you go into an EEG, one of the things that they always have you do is hyperventilate. Hyperventilating triggers seizure activity in the brain. Therefore, slowing down you breathing should logically have the opposite effect! Many people who have experienced seizures will note that their breathing prior to the seizure was erratic. Some people who have longer auras can actually prevent a seizure through slowing down their breathing.

One aspect of the Buteyko Breathing Method is exercise. Nasal breathing during exercise can help to prevent seizures. 

 

The Water Cure

When one gets dehydrated, the body is highly likely to go into dysfunction. For me, I went to the beach once and experienced what felt like an aura. I immediately drank some water and the feeling calmed down. I don’t know if it prevented the seizure or if I never would have had the seizure in the first place.[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”500″ identifier=”0970245815″ locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5167SVBVCDL.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”340″]

Dr. Batmanghelidj theorizes that the root cause of disease starts with a dehydrated state. This makes sense to me as the body is 60% water. Having a deficit in one of the most abundance elements in the body is going to cause dysfunction somewhere in the body, or at least contribute to the problem. His theory is that the initial stages of disease begin when the amino acids get used up as detoxifying agents because the body isn’t producing enough urine to rid the body of toxins. Toxins building up in the brain can trigger excessive electrical activity in the brain. Hydrogen and oxygen (water) has a calming effect on the neurons.

The water cure is very simple and can easily be implemented by anyone. Drink half of your body weight in ounces per day and dissolve a pinch of sea salt on your tonuge with each glass of water.

Will this absolutely cure you of epilepsy? Probably not initially. It may take awhile for you to get accustomed to drinking the proper amount of water and taking in the right amount of salt to reverse your health conditions. I have worked with some friends who implemented this technique and they felt much better drinking the water and taking the salt. They were able to lose weight and reduce chronic pain. I feel much better when I am consuming plenty of water. I am not having tons of seizures and I’m off my medication now, so this step is working pretty well for me.

 

CBD Oil

CBD oil is gaining more and more traction in the news lately. CBD oil helps to calm the nervous system down. Cannabis-based products have been used to treat seizures since 1843 by W.B. O’Shaughnessy, a physician in the Bengal Army. After he tested the behavioral effects of cannabis on goats, sheep, cows and other animals, he investigated the effects in patients with a variety of disorders. He observed an anti-seizure effect. The use of cannabis has declined a bit due to the plant becoming illegal. As scientific advancements have been made, and it has become clear that cannabis has an effect on seizure control, more and more people have started to use CBD oil.

Cannabis is the flowering plant. The most abundant and biologically active chemicals in cannabis are called cannabinoids. The two main cannabinoids in cannabis are CBD and THC. THC has a psychogenic effect on the body. However, CBD has a positive, anti-seizure effect.

The body has two cannabinoid receptors type 1 (CB1) and 2 (CB2). Both the CB1 and CB2 recpetors are in a class of G-coupled metabotropic receptors. There is an involvement of endo-cannabinoid signaling pathways in the pathophysiology of epilepsy. Studies have demonstrated that endogenous cannabinoids systems are altered in a variety of models of seizures, epilepsy and epileptogenesis. There have been observations that the endocannabinoid systems is involved in finding and reducing anandamide concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid of people with new-onset temporal lobe epilepsy. It downregulates CB1 receptors and redlated molecular components in gluatmatergic neurons from surgical samples of the hippocampus of epilepsy patients.

CBD oil is now available through network marketing companies, such as Hempworx. You can also find online companies that sell CBD oil. In some states, you can purchase CBD oil through distilleries.

Conclusion

There are many things that you can do at home to prevent seizures and naturally cure your epilepsy. You don’t need your doctor’s permission to start one of these diets, however, you will want to let him in on the fact that you are doing it. The reason for this is that as you get healthier, you may become more sensitive to the side effects of the medication. If this happens, you will want to request a reduction in medication and an EEG to see that your brain waves are normal. Keep in mind that a “normal” EEG can be had by someone who has epilepsy and someone who doesn’t have seizures can have an “abnormal” EEG. It is just a benchmark that neurologists use. It is somewhat imperfect.

 

 

 

 

My Keto Chicken Soup Recipe

I love my keto chicken soup recipe. It is super easy to make and utilizes a lot of healthy vegetables. The great thing about making keto chicken soup is that you can take some of the broth that you made and use it for another soup dish or another meal. My keto chicken soup recipe starts out with a whole chicken, but you don’t need to use the whole chicken in the soup. You can use half the chicken and save some of the chicken for another recipe, killing two birds with one stone! (I usually divide the chicken meat in half and make a chicken broccoli casserole with the other meat. It is tasty!)

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole chicken
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 onion
  • 2 carrots (these can be omitted because root veggies tend to be higher in carbohydrates, but I still like a slice or two in my soups)
  • 1/2 cup chopped celery
  • 1/2 cup frozen green beans
  • 1/2 cup frozen broccoli
  • 1/2 cup cabbage
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt
  • 8 cups of water
  • 4-5 mushrooms sliced (optional)
  • grated pepper (to taste)
  • 2 boullion cubes

Directions:

Remove the organs from the cavity of the bird. Place the whole bird in a crockpot with 8-10 cups of water. Add in tablespoon of sea salt, bay leaf and one stalk of chopped celery. Cook under pressure for 30-40 minuts. If you are using a crockpot, add the water and the chicken to the pot and cook for an hour. Remove the chicken and allow to cool. Take all the meat off of the chicken carcas.

Chop up the celery, onions, carrots, cabbage and mushrooms. To the broth, add the onions, carrots, mushrooms, celery, cabbage, broccoli, green beans and pepper. Chop up the chicken that you deboned and add it to the soup. Season with boullion cube If you are using a pressure cooker, cook for ten minutes under pressure. If you are using a crock pot, then cook for 30 minutes. Cool and serve!

My keto chicken soup recipe tends to follow my style of throw everything in the pot and hope it turns out cooking. You can omit veggies that you dislike and add in ones that I may not have thought to add. These are my tried and true veggies that I enjoy eating on a regular basis. Therefore, they get thrown in!

 

[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”90″ identifier=”B001E5DZJ8″ locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eeTiQ6CTL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”160″][easyazon_image align=”right” height=”159″ identifier=”B00FLYWNYQ” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41L%2Br0px7RL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”160″][easyazon_image align=”right” height=”110″ identifier=”B0012BS9F4″ locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41UzvzNZUuL._SL110_.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”48″]

 

 

 

Get Back on Track with Diet and Exercise!

So, after three weeks of being great with the ketogenic diet. I cheated. Oh my! I went to a luncheon where I had a plan to eat ketogenic foods in place. I selected what looked to me like chili without beans and coleslaw. Now, I realize that these dishes could be made with sugar, but I selected them anyway as the were the most ketogenic friendly dishes out. As I was eating, I noticed that people were eating sloppy joes. My “beanless chili” was sloppy joe mix. I could taste the sugar or corn syrup and realized I was not eating healthy anymore.

Forgive Yourself

Since I was already off my diet, I indulged in the cake and some reece’s pieces. Um, yeah. I’m not good at being in moderation. What I am good at is getting back on track! So, the first thing that I did was accepted that I was just going to be off the diet briefly. I decided that I was going to enjoy the foods that I was eating and the company that I was with. I made the decision not to be too hard on myself.

Plan Your Next Step

The next step was planning my next healthy meal. Since this was lunch, I decided that I was going to drink plenty of water when I got home so that I’d be fully hydrated and my body would be capable of flushing out some of the junk foods that I ate. Since I overindulged at lunch, I wasn’t that hungry and decided that I’d skip dinner and do an “intermittent fast,” a popular thing with ketogenic dieters. That step would reduce the temptation to continually eat high carbohydrate foods for the rest of the day.

I planned on having a delicious Greek yogurt with berries and nuts for breakfast. I love Greek yogurt and it fits well into a low carbohydrate diet. Not to mention, it tasted great the next morning. This time around was much easier to get back on track with the diet because I had prepared a bunch of ketogenic chicken dishes for the week. I packed my regular salad and tuna fish for lunch and had a lovely chicken soup for dinner.

Train Your Brain for Continual Success and Focus on Goals

I listened to the think right now audio, Setting and Achieving Goals to mentally prepa[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”160″ identifier=”B001NPF4NY” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/519YSGiCHiL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”120″]re myself for being on a diet. My goal was to stay on the ketogenic diet for 30 days straight. I made it 15. It is okay to start over again. Part of achieving goals is recognizing your weaknesses and figuring out how to address them or overcome them. My weakness is lunch buffets with friends! I have a hard time turning down a cookie! The Setting and Achieving Goals audio has been very useful though in getting me to focus more on my important goals. Repeatedly hearing the affirmations helps me to forgive myself faster and get back on track a lot faster. In the past, I would have gotten off track for a week or a month instead of simply one meal! I know this! I have tried many diets from the GAPS diet to the blood type diet.

The Think Right Now audios are great. I have used them to increase sales, get organized and eat healthy. I listen to the audios in the background when I am working and at night. The changes are very subtle, but as I listen to them, I notice that they impact my behavior. I am more easily able to take the actions that I need to achieve my goals and shake off the distractions. I find that I procrastinate less when I am listening to the Think Right Now audios.

Recommit to Exercise and Eat Right

Since I had gotten off of my diet, recommitting to exercise was part of my goal. Not only because it will burn calories, but also because I feel great after I do it. Immediately after getting off of my diet, I took a long walk with the dog. During the walk, I committed myself to an extra half hour of exercise the next few days. What exercise did I choose? Why rebounding on a trampoline! Jumping on a trampoline is a tough cardio workout, it is fun and it stimulates the lymphatic system to help rid the body of those toxins I just consumed!

While jumping on a trampoline does provide a sense of euphoria and makes you feel a bit like a little kid, the picture below is not me! I’m not that daring on a trampoline, but it is a great workout and a ton of fun! If you have a nice neighbor who will let you bounce on their trampoline, I highly recommend it. You can also get a mini-trampoline or rebounder from Amazon for a nice price! 

Chicken and More Chicken, Oh My!

This week as I was deciding what I would eat prior to going to the grocery store, I had a few things in mind. I had decided that I wanted to try a pumpkin soup recipe that was similar to butternut squash soup, but used canned pumpkin puree, so I could avoid the mess. Well, that led me to deciding to make a soup so I could use the stock in the pumpkin soup. I decided to buy a whole chicken and debone it myself today! That is quite the task! I could have simply eaten the chicken sliced, but I decided to stretch my meat purchase as far as I could. I will be able to use this chicken in four different recipes this week! 

Chicken Soup!

Chicken soup was going to be a no-brainer. I was boiling up the chicken in my pressure cooker and would have plenty of broth. After cooking the chicken, I took it out to debone it. I divided up the chicken into three portions. For the chicken soup, I used a ton of ketogenic veggies – frozen green beans, cabbage, 2 carrots (not keto, I know, but I only used two and the portion of carrot in each soup bowl would only be one or two slices), an onion, celery, mushrooms, sea salt, pepper, an organic boullion cube, and parsley. 

 

I reserved about 2 cups of chicken stock for my pumpkin soup that I will be making tomorrow.

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

I have already posted my recipe for a chicken broccoli casserole. This time, I didn’t have fresh broccoli that I wanted to use for it. I was thinking about using the fresh broccoli for a stir fry or steamed as a side dish later in the week, so I whipped out some frozen broccoli, layered the chicken over it and then spread a layer of cream of mushroom soup and a layer of mayonaise, chopped up some mushrooms and onions and put them on top of that and topped it off with shredded cheddar cheese. So excited to see how the frozen broccoli works when I eat it for dinner tonight! 

Chicken Salad

Chicken salad is a dish that I haven’t made in awhile. I took the third portion of the chicken and chopped it up. I added a spoonful of relish and two tablespoons of mayonnaise. I chopped up two celery stalks and mixed it up. I loved it! It is similar to tuna salad, but it has a milder flavor than tuna fish. I loved the relish in it too. It will make a fun lunch meal for tomorrow. But because I was stretching this chicken, it didn’t make a ton of salad. I’m glad that I tried it. I may try out canned chicken for chicken salad next.

Pumpkin Soup

This soup is being made with the chicken stock. I’m super excited to test this out tomorrow an may update the blog afterwards.

Weekly Prep Saves Time

This week’s food prep is going to save me time during the week as now I have at least half of my meals made. I will be consuming a lot of chicken and veggies this week! It actually only took me about an hour and a half to prepare the chicken casserole and the chicken soup. The main time waster was the deboning of the whole chicken. I could have cut that out by using some frozen chicken breasts or chicken thighs with fewer bones. In the future, I may want to add some more chicken to the batch that I am cooking so that I can have more chicken salad or sliced chicken for eating.

 

 

 

 

Power Pressure Cooker Review

[easyazon_image align=”right” height=”395″ identifier=”B01BVV07KO” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41MH3ejaDFL.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”395″]Power Pressure Cooker Review

Name: Power Pressure Cooker XL 6 quart
Website: powerpressurecooker.com
Price: $99.99
Owners: Eric Theiss
Overall Rank: 90 out of 100

Power Pressure Cooker, Product Overview

This is an electric pressure cooker.

The Good & the Bad

The Good: Very easy to use!

PRO #1: The power pressure cooker is very easy to use. It comes with an instruction manual that details what each button is for and how to set up the power pressure cooker.
PRO #2: It is far safer than using a pressure cooker on the stove. The power pressure cooker has a timer feature that will turn itself off when you are finished with it. This reduces the chances that you will leave it on all day and burn your house down.
PRO #3: The power pressure cooker will cook your meal fast. You can be sure that you will be getting tender meat dishes in record time with the power pressure cooker. It has smaller time settings to do things like vegetables and soups too!

The Bad: Clunky

CON #1: The power pressure cooker is large and clunky. I have the smallest version of the power pressure cooker and it does seem to take up a lot of space. I only pull it out once a week to cook and store it in the bottom cabinet.
CON #2: It takes ten minutes to build up pressure, so you may just want to steam the vegetables instead of pressure cook them because by the time you build up pressure and release the pressure, you could have steamed those vegetables. However, meats and roasts do very well because they would have required a few hours time to cook.

Who is Power Pressure Cooker For?

The power pressure cooker is ideal for moms and cooks who don’t have a lot of time. It may not be ideal for a single person because it takes up a lot of space and the smallest size is 6 quarts, which is pretty large.

Power Pressure Cooker Support

The power pressure cooker does have a customer service line! They are very responsive. I received the power pressure cooker as a gift and wanted a 6 quart one instead of a 10 quart one. They gave me instructions on how to send it back and order the correct size. They estimated the amount of time that it would take so that I would know when to expect it. I was not thrilled that I had to pay the shipping to return it, but in the end, I got the right size for my usage.

Power Pressure Cooker Price

The price of the power pressure cooker is very comparable to other pressure cookers on the market. The six quart pressure cooker is priced at $99.

My Final Opinion of Power Pressure Cooker

Honestly, I didn’t think I needed or wanted it. I had a crock pot that worked and did a fine job with roasts and stews. However, since I received it as a gift, I decided to make use of it instead of returning it. It turned out to be fantastic at making roasts and made short time of preparing ingredients like butternut squash for a soup. The benefit of a pressure cooker versus a crock pot is that it cuts the cooking time into a fourth of the time that would normally be needed. It is a great kitchen tool that I use regularly now.

Power Pressure Cooker at a Glance…

Name: Power Pressure Cooker XL 6 quart

Website: powerpressurecooker.com
Owners: Eric Theiss
Price: 99.99
Overall Scam Rank: 90 out of 100

VERDICT: Good buy!

Doing the Keto Diet on a Budget

The ketogenic diet does not have to be expensive unless you want it to be. In fact, after ditching most of the convenience foods that I had been eating, I noticed that the food budget actually went down! While you always want to strive to buy organic foods and high quality meats, there are ways to do this diet on a budget!

Using Coupons for the Ketogenic Foods

There are times when the foods on a ketogenic diet will have a coupon. Most of the time, you won’t find coupons for fresh produce or meats. However, there are staples on the ketogenic diet that often do have coupons or go on sale. These include frozen veggies, frozen berries, mayonnaise and other canned vegetables. Often deli meats do have coupons. Occasionally, brand name dairy products like heavy whipping cream or cheese will have a good coupon. Most of the time, coupons are advertisements for products that are convenience foods, so this isn’t going to be a big source of savings on your ketogenic diet. Before you leave for the grocery store, scan through the coupons to see if there are any for the foods that you buy.

If your grocery store doubles coupons, shop on the day when they are doubling the coupons. It can make a big difference in your bottom line! Many people become very proficient at combining coupons and sales to reduce their cost to almost nothing.

Buy the Frozen or Canned Version

Canned seafood is much less expensive and can be very versatile. I buy cans of wild caught salmon and tuna from Costco. It is so convenient for lunches. You can easily add tuna fish or salmon to a salad for a boost of protein to your meal. Canned tuna makes a good tuna salad if you add mayonnaise, celery and some relish. You can use canned salmon to make salmon patties and fry them in olive oil for a fun entree.

For some vegetables, it just makes more sense to buy the canned version. For a pumpkin recipe, canned pumpkin puree is going to save you a ton of time and money over buying the whole pumpkin! This doesn’t even include the time that I would spend preparing the pumpkin. I’m planning on using canned pumpkin for my pumpkin cheesecake bites and my pumpkin soup recipes this fall. It will save me a ton of time and headache![easyazon_image align=”right” height=”160″ identifier=”B0062A87HA” locale=”US” src=”https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51gKG9HfbqL._SL160_.jpg” tag=”mcurle08-20″ width=”104″]

Buy fresh when it is in season. Buy frozen when it is not. Most of the time fresh vegetables are going to be more expensive than frozen. Frozen food have the added convenience of being washed and chopped beforehand. They are flash frozen and often retain more nutrients than their fresh counterparts which tend to lose some in transit.

Some people may not like the texture of frozen spinach or broccoli. However, this can easily be remedied by using them as an ingredient in other foods, such as casseroles, quiches and soups.

Shop seasonally!

This goes along with shopping the sales. When vegetables and berries are in season, they are going to be in abundance and grocery stores will want to move them faster. They are going to be more likely to be on sale during those times. Knowing what is in season and when will help you when you are making decisions on what to buy. Berries are going to be summer fruits. Most grocery stores are shipping them in from other countries, but during the summer months, they will likely be less expensive.

Broccoli, spinach and winter squashes are going to be priced the best during the fall and spring months. They are “cold weather” crops. These vegetables do best in cooler temperatures. Look for their prices to be best during the fall.

Certain meats will go on sale a week before a holiday. You will likely to find good prices on turkeys during November and just prior to Christmas. Ham is almost always on sale around Easter time. I purchased corned beef just prior to St. Patrick’s day for a little over a dollar a pound.The next week, I noticed that the price had risen considerably. If you are flexible with your meat purchases, you can get great deals around the holiday times. For people with large freezers, you may want to purchase an additional turkey or ham and plan ahead for future meals.

My strategy has always been to buy the meat that is on sale and then find a recipe for it. This is easily accomplished with the use of google. You can always type in “ketogenic recipe for xyz” and come up with a lot of great ideas!

Invest in a pressure cooker or a crock pot. The least expensive cuts of meat often are the toughest cuts of meat. However, if you make use of a crock pot or a pressure cooker, you can turn the toughest piece of meat into a tender entree!

Costco and Other Wholesale Clubs

Costco can offer a lot of great deals when it comes to the ketogenic diet. Nuts are priced well at costco. I pick up canned wild caught salmon from Costco, as well as olive oil. When I lived near a costco and didn’t have a car, I frequently bought my groceries there, which is really unusual for a single person, but it was a lifesaver. They have good quality produce and meats that are usually great prices.

Shopping at Costco will save you lots of money if you are buying staples for ketogenic baking, such as almond meal or almond flour. It is about 60% of the cost of almond flour on Amazon or in the grocery store. However, don’t feel like you need to do baking. That tends to be a bit more expensive.

I discovered great prices at the local Super H (Korean grocery store in Fairfax, VA) when  I lived near a Super H. While I didn’t recognize many of the vegetables, I could almost always find a great deal on produce. Get outside your comfort zone and try out ethnic grocery stores, you may discover some great deals!

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My Sample Keto Diet

Before starting the ketogenic diet, I really thought that it was all lettuce, mayonnaise and heavy whipping cream. I had no idea what I could put together that would taste good and sustain me throughout the day. Not only that, but my neurologist told me that the ketogenic diet wasn’t right for me. It wouldn’t work for me. Of course, as a teenager, it was far easier to take the anticonvulsant that the doctor was prescribing. After all, it provided instant results and the side effects were tolerable, or so I thought! As the years wore on, I realized that I couldn’t improve my health as long as I was taking an anticonvulsant. It would be constantly working against my liver. So, after a couple decades, I took the plunge and went keto. This page is a sample of the things that I am eating on the keto diet.

Get the recipe for this chicken stir fry
You don’t need bread! A lettuce wrap with tuna fish and tomatoes is great!
Lunch can be salads with deviled eggs! It is great!
Berries are a low carbohydrate fruit and a great way to make a smoothie!

As you can see, this sample keto diet demonstrates that there are a wide variety of things that you can add to your menu. Berries are great for breakfast smoothies and as a side dish or dessert! There are lots of different vegetables that you can eat and combine with other vegetables to make them taste great! A hamburger does not require a bun and can be jazzed up with sauteed onions and mushrooms or served with a slice of cheese for added flavor!