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Showing posts from December 12, 2016

Healthy Broccoli & Parmesan Hash Brown Bake

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Hey, hey! You guys remember my Hash Brown Breakfast Bake , right? I mean, how could you not?! It’s one of the tastiest breakfasts ever and if you haven’t made it yet, you absolutely need to! Seriously, get on it! Ok, so the  Hash Brown Breakfast Bake  is, no doubt, a delicious dish, but it’s not very healthy. In fact, we’ve tried to use it again and again in our Designed to Fit Nutrition meal plans, but it never quite fits. (It’s really high in fat from all of those hash browns!) Even still, I make one of these breakfast bakes just about every week because they’re so friggin’ good. (Mal typically eats the majority of it, but I’ll have a piece or two.) I usually have a couple of hash brown patties leftover, so I decided to make my own (lower fat) version. I actually created this healthier recipe about a month ago (you may have seen it on Instagram already) and continue to make it week after week, so I decided that it needed its own blog post. It’s definitely a staple recipe in o

Dear Mark: Protein Powder Dangers, Fermented Polyphenols, Whole Foods’ Farmed Salmon, and K-Cup Bone Broth

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For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering four reader questions. First, a recent NY Times article makes some scary claims about protein powder—and protein in general. Should you worry? Next, what does a study about probiotics and polyphenol absorption mean for probiotics in general? Third, what do I think about Whole Foods’ new farmed salmon, which purports to be way healthier and more sustainable than other farmed salmons? And finally, I discuss K-cup bone broth. Let’s go: Article I saw in the NY Times and thought I would pass it along. Curious to hear from Mark the concerns around protein powders. I still take Primal Fuel 4-5 times per week for breakfast and believe in Mark’s company so hoping the quality is better than the rest. There are a lot of things to unpack from that article. First, the heavy metal content of protein powder. A few reports have come out in the last half decade about protein powders showing elevated levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, and other met

How to Survive the Season of Overindulgence

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’Tis the season for overindulgence — holiday parties, family gatherings, piles of cookies and candy all over the office. And while it can be difficult (if not downright impossible) to avoid all those temptations, you can help offset some of the negative health effects of straying from your normal healthy diet. The secret weapon? Exercise. A 2013 study found that just one week of eating 50 percent more calories than normal can impair insulin sensitivity. But that research was based on people who were sedentary. So researchers at the University of Michigan decided to test the same scenario — but this time using lean, active adults as subjects. “In conditions of excess food, there is more circulating fat interfering with the normal function of tissues that are not supposed to have fat (like muscles and the liver),” explains Alison C. Ludzki, first author on the study. But if you stay active, you may ameliorate some of that damage. During this study, the subjects consumed 30 percent mor

All In Again

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Guest post written by: Mike Flagler   It was the best of days; it was the worst of days. It was a day very much like today. It started poorly. I overslept. I had gone to bed with some work unfinished. As I was getting dressed, I realized that my poor food choices these past couple of months required me to buy a bigger pair of shorts for work. For the 1st time in 3 years, I had to upsize. “Shorts for work? WTF are you complaining about?!?!?” I know. Flagler problems are not as serious as third-world starvation or the existence of dangerous pronouns like “his” and “her”. After about a year of weight stability right around 200 lbs (I’m 6’3″, 43 years old), I threw away everything over a 32 inch waist.  I arrived at my 3-year paleo/primal anniversary on September 29 feeling pretty good about my accomplishments. After half a lifetime of illness, my low carb, whole foods diet had eliminated all symptoms of obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, gingivitis,

Silver Bells, Wedding Bells

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^^I need this framed photo for my house!! #26. Happy holiday Monday! Christmas is coming so fast. So is 2017. I did a lot of dining out this weekend, and am excited to do a lot of cooking this week. I am putting extra mindfulness on my weekdays knowing I have so many fun things happening on the weekends this time of year. I met my friend Erin for lunch on Friday at Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. We shared this yummy platter, and each had a salad and mint tea! Friday night was super cold, and I had a date night in with some take-out Miso Sweet. Loving this new-to-me restaurant! We watched the movie Sugar Mountain . Not recommended… Saturday morning breakfast was eggs, grapefruit, and toast! I took Mazen to the gym and did a sweaty stairmaster workout. Saturday afternoon we headed to King Family Vineyard for a wedding! It was frigid outside, but inside was cozy as can be with a fire going. The rustic details were so pretty. The food was outstanding, especially those shrimp