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Showing posts from January, 2018

10 Years: Top 10 Carrots ‘N’ Cake Blog Posts

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Hi, guys! We’re approaching Carrots ‘N’ Cake’s 10th birthday , so I wanted to take a little trip down memory lane and share some of the most visited blog posts (according to Google Analytics). Some of them are somewhat expected, but some of them are total surprises. It’s funny what the Internet likes (and doesn’t like)! 🙂 With that, here are the top 10 most viewed CNC posts to date ! 10. How 3 Months of CrossFit Changed My Body – People love transformation story and this post was published during the height of CrossFit. 9. Paleo Pumpkin Walnut Muffins – I mean, who doesn’t love a “healthy” muffin recipe, am I right? This recipe hit the internet when Paleo was super popular. 8. 45-Minute Treadmill Workout – I can’t believe this post made the top 10, but it IS a really great treadmill workout! 7. 10 Tips for Balancing Exercise with a New Baby – Getting back to your fitness routine is definitely a struggle after having a baby. I like to think this post has helped a lot of new

5 Suggestions for Becoming Less Civilized (and a Giveaway)

Primal Cooking Point: Italian Dressing, Anyone?

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Everyone here knows how much I love my Big Ass Salads . So, the day we come out with a new dressing is a very good day in my mind. And this one might just be my new favorite…. I’m happy to introduce the new PRIMAL KITCHEN® Italian , and I think you’re going to love it. It’s a light, perfectly seasoned dressing, dip and marinade for all of your Mediterranean inspired dishes that’s filled with organic ingredients including thyme, oregano, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and sea salt. High in healthy monounsaturated fats, it’s Keto, Whole30 and Paleo/Primal Approved as well as Non-GMO Project Verified. And let me share one of the ways I’m enjoying our new Italian: Antipasto Skewers. There’s no exact science to follow here—just your own Antipasto favorites like nitrate-free shaved meats, mozzarella, basil leaves, and artichoke folded together and dipped (or doused, if you’re me) in PRIMAL KITCHEN Italian Dressing . I know what I’m having for lunch. Thanks for reading this morning, everyo

GIVEAWAY: 100 Copies of Dr. Mercola’s Effortless Healing Book

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I’ve been a fan of Dr. Joseph Mercola’s work for quite some time, and he just came out with a new book that you can’t miss: Effortless Healing: 9 Simple Ways to Sidestep Illness, Shed Excess Weight, and Help Your Body Fix Itself . PICTURE OF BOOK COVER Dr. Mercola wrote this book because, statistically speaking, almost all of us are either affected with a chronic health issue or excess weight… and the outlook is not good! In America, the rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease are all expected to rise. What I find particularly alarming is that over half of the U.S. population has an allergy now, and this has grown dramatically in the last few decades. In Effortless Healing , Dr. Mercola organized years of expert information into a guide to help you avoid many of the pitfalls of the conventional approach to health. There’s a better way! Dr. Mercola walks you through 9 simple steps, leading you to small shifts in what you eat that can help you achieve your health

Home Neat Home: Three Closet Makeovers

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You guys know I love a good closet post !! Our house is very tidy on the surface, but the closets always do get quite messy! It’s that lifestyle creep that happens when you “accidentally” buy a new set of flannel sheets on sale at Target, even though you didn’t need any more sheets, and suddenly all the sheets are competing for the closet real estate! <– (This may or may not be based on a true story.) So, in the spirit of simplifying and decluttering in the new year, I tackled three of the four major storage closets in our house. (Mazen’s closet is in good shape and mine is also breathing well. Thomas’s closet is his territory and I don’t dare go in there to organize!) So the three closets on topic today are: The guest room closet The spare room closet The office closet Previously, I had things stored where they were used most frequently. I had sheets in the master bedroom, sheets in the office closet for Mazen’s bed, and all the rest of the sheets and spare linens in th

The 5 Most Inflammatory Foods You Should be Avoiding in Your Diet

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I’m so excited to have Kristin guest post on CNC today. If you missed yesterday’s blog post, I’m working with her over the next several months to improve some of my gut issues and reduce inflammation. Speaking of which, read on to see what she has to say about the top inflammatory foods and how removing them from your diet can jumpstart your recovery.  Photo by  Brooke Lark  on  Unsplash The 5 Most Inflammatory Foods You Should be Avoiding in Your Diet If you told me five years ago I would no longer be able to eat the very foods I loved most, I would have been utterly crushed. Think about how many diets today promise that you can “have your cake and eat it too”. Weight Watchers makes you give up more points, but ultimately still be able to eat whatever you want; “If It Fits Your Macros” or IIFYM has become a health trend with bodybuilders and weight lifters promising that a carb is a carb no matter what, giving the green light on donuts and white bread if that’s how you want to sp

Primal Kitchen Efficiency: 13 Tips for Daily Organization and Smooth Cooking

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Good cooking is art and science. You’re measuring, you’re tasting, you’re following recipes, you’re following intuition. You’re adding a dash of this, a level teaspoon of that. It’s clinical and sensual at once. For this kind of good cooking to occur, pleasurable cooking, the kitchen needs to disappear. It must get out of the way and become an extension of your body. You shouldn’t have to think about what to use or where to grab it; you just know it. A messy, disjointed lab or workspace is hell. The ideal kitchen is just that, of course, an ideal. It’s probably not attainable or maintainable. Something will always come up to mar the optimality, like a toddler hanging on your ankle or the dirty dishes from last night or that damn spatula that always blocks the drawer from opening. But we can aim for it and get as close as possible. These tips aren’t specific to Primal. They’re not specific at all; I won’t tell you which dishes to make. They are general guidelines that will increase

Primal Knowledge Point: FODMAP

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“Some people continue to suffer uncomfortable digestive problems despite omitting the foods they may be intolerant to. If there are no definite test results pointing at an allergy or intolerance, then you’ll most likely be diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Scientists Peter Gibson and Susan Shepherd at Moash University in Australia researched the reasons behind the vicious cycle of bloating, diarrhea, constipation, and discomfort. They came upon some evidence proving that certain sugars could actually be the cause of many of these ailments: ‘Fermentable Oligo-Di-Monosaccharides and Polyols,’ thus founding the term FODMAP. Fermentable: these types of sugar have the ability and tendency to ferment in our intestines, resulting in bloating and diarrhea. Oligosaccharides: fructans (FOS), wheat, rye, onions, garlic, galactans (GOS) (legumes), chickpeas. Disaccharide: sucrose, maltose, lactose. Monosaccharide: fructose, glucose, and galactose. Polyol: sorbitol, mannito

Gingerbread Overnight Oats

Clean Eating Instant Pot Chicken Soup Recipe

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This clean eating Instant Pot chicken soup recipe is perfect for the chilly evenings we’ve been having lately. It’s also great when you have a sick kid at home and don’t have a ton of time to cook… Read more → from The Gracious Pantry http://ift.tt/2ElYhyI

The Diet I Said I Would Never Do Again

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If you’re a long-time reader, you know that I struggled with ulcerative colitis for many years. If you’d like to read my story, you can check it out here , but the short of it is that I tried all sorts of diet and lifestyle changes with not one ounce of improvement in my symptoms – if anything, they just got worse and worse (probably because I was so darn stressed and obsessed with my illness). Included in those changes was a 4-month stint on the Autoimmune Paleo Diet . It was insanely restrictive, so, not surprisingly, for some who loves food, it made me pretty miserable. And, on top of that, I never got one bit better, so I vowed never to do the AIP diet again. (At the end of month 4 on the diet, I actually got pregnant and my immune system regulated itself, so I stopped the insansity.) After reading that, I’m sure you’re wondering why now ? Why the heck would I put myself though all of that misery again? Well, it’s pretty simple: I’m still a sick person, and I don’t want to be

Dear Mark: Better Rest, and a Parent’s Nightmare: Tablets and Pickiness

Primal Action Point: The Mind-Body Connection & Thyroid Health

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“I became aware of the power of positive thinking after solving my first bout of hypothyroidism. So when a Reverse T3 problem showed up, I actively filled my life with audiobooks, podcast interviews, and films related to spiritual healing, the power of positive thinking, and the power of the subconscious mind. Make a vision board to hang in your house, or make a smaller version that you can keep private if you don’t want others in the household to see it. Devote the entire vision board to health and healing; it can be a continual source of inspiration and hope while also imprinting your subconscious mind with positive health affirmations every time you see it. If you are experiencing hypothyroidism for the first time, just know that it is fixable. You have the highest chance of success if you dedicate yourself to learning all that you can about hypothyroidism while adopting a paleo/primal eating and lifestyle strategy to support your goals. — Excerpts from The Paleo Thyroid Solutio

I’ve Got Peace Like A River

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^^ Friday afternoon river romp with classmates! He was content sitting on a rock and just taking in nature for a while. <3 On Friday night we chilled out at home. I opened this bottle of Zin from Winc. We had sausages from JM Stock over spaghetti. (You’ll be seeing spaghetti a lot more because it’s Mazen’s new found second favorite food! Pizza will always come first.) There were mushrooms in the sauce, and we had little kale salads on the side. We had a super cozy night watching the finale of Stranger Things 2 in bed with hot tea! Snuggle, snuggle. This is how mornings usually begin: Coffee and an animal parade! I am totally into bootie slippers this winter and got these at Target. They are currently on clearance ! On Saturday morning Thomas made me a mini omelet with bacon and pear slices. (Lest you think that is the world’s largest slice of bacon, please note this is a tiny plate! Haha!) We all went to the gym for a good workout before getting the day going. Mazen w