http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
It’s that time of year when we’re swimming in zucchini, and no matter what we make, it feels like we just can’t use it up fast enough. When it comes to prepping this summer veggie, I tend to default to coins, half-moons, and perhaps zucchini spears. But there is a better way to cut zucchini, and it’s a total game-changer.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
While we were sleeping, Aldi made a surprising and fun announcement: “With an emphasis on fresh, organic, and easy-to-prepare options, 20 percent of products in every ALDI store will be new and its fresh food category is increasing by 40 percent,” a press release explains, comparing the offerings to last year.
Related: Your Aldi Store Is Getting a Makeover! Plus 6 Other Fun Insider Facts from Aldi
Some of the new stuff that will be on offer? Private-label kombucha (!!!), veggie noodles, organic meats, kale and quinoa crunch burgers, gluten-free bagels, and more.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
If adherence is the principal player in the triumph of our goals; temptation is its villain. If fitness programs proceeded unimpeded, “results” would be the norm. New Year’s Resolutions would become successes and new promises would be made the following year. Sadly, they act more like Groundhog’s Day, with the same goals set on repeat. The seduction of power can crumble a kingdom and the lure of avarice can derail a career.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Who doesn’t love a big ol’ hug? Whenever a loved one is upset, it’s almost instinctual to wrap your arms around them — why is that? Well, because a hug makes us feel good. It’s also a form of healing therapy, which has been extensively studied due to its noninvasive approach. Researchers have found that […]
https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/
Things happen quickly in the third trimester, and if you’re working with a client through her pregnancy, you may sense her growing excitement — and a healthy dose of anxiety — keeping pace with her growing belly as the big day draws near.
It’s important that you remain flexible and focused on the baseline training goals of the third trimester, which for most clients experiencing a healthy pregnancy typically include:
Maintaining some level of physical activity.One of the best ways to support your client during this time is to understand some of the common mental and physical changes that can affect her ability to exercise. Keep these concerns in mind and follow your client’s lead if she experiences any of the following:
Your client may feel some low back discomfort during the final trimester and will likely mention it in training sessions. As a coach, it’s beyond your scope to diagnose the cause of her back pain, and the best course of action is to refer her to her healthcare provider to make sure there aren’t underlying serious health issues.
The good news is that exercise has been shown to be beneficial for women with low back pain. Find movements and exercises that are pain-free for your client and that make her feel strong and confident in her body. If an exercise is painful, try modifying her technique or alignment and see if her pain improves. It is always helpful to ask questions about how she feels during and after her training sessions — many women feel that low back pain is an inevitable part of pregnancy and may not even mention it if you don’t ask! Make sure she is comfortable and lets you know if any of the exercises make her feel more pain.
We know from the research that there is no one type of exercise that is superior to other forms when it comes to low back pain. Modalities such as yoga, pilates, strength training, swimming and walking may all be beneficial. Many pregnant women find relief with some of the following exercises and stretches, which can be performed in the gym or at home:
Fatigue is a common complaint in the third trimester. Carrying around the extra weight gets exhausting, and the process of growing a baby is likely sapping your client’s energy. Plus, she may not be getting much sleep because she can’t get into a comfortable position and has to get up frequently in the middle of the night to use the restroom.
Be aware that every woman experiences pregnancy differently. Some women may feel great in their final trimester and will stroll into labor with little discomfort. Tune into how your client is feeling and ask her how she is doing at the start and end of every session. Be prepared to make adjustments where required. She may experience a reduced aerobic capacity as the baby grows and presses into her diaphragm. High-intensity training may be too challenging at this point and she may do better with lower intensity activities.
Some days, gentle movement, relaxation, and stretching may what she needs, rather than strength training or aerobic exercise — so be flexible in your planning. She may also need more rest days between sessions to improve her recovery, so if she normally trains with you on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you’ve noticed that she’s feeling more drained on Thursdays, ask her if she’d like to switch her Thursday session to Friday.
Screening for iron deficiency is a common part of pregnancy medical care, but if your client is experiencing exhaustion during the third trimester, she may benefit from having her iron levels checked again. Make sure she brings it up with her physician who may prescribe some iron supplementation.
Even though diastasis recti (DR) is considered a normal response to pregnancy and practically every pregnant woman will have it, you should still monitor your client’s abdominal wall for any bulging along the linea alba between the two sides of the rectus abdominis muscles.
With your client’s permission (always ask first), place your fingers just above her belly button and feel for any bulging along the midline. If she’s wearing a tight T-shirt you may be able to see the outline of her abdominal muscles. Bulging will be obvious.
If you notice bulging when she’s performing a particular exercise, modify her technique or eliminate that exercise. Good alignment and breathing may help control intra-abdominal pressure more effectively which is sometimes enough to eliminate the bulge. By the third trimester (and often as early as the middle of the second trimester) the linea alba may not be able to support certain exercises. Planks, crunches, and other high-load abdominal exercises in a front-loading position often cause doming, but so can simple overhead dumbbell exercises. Monitor the abdominal wall frequently and adjust accordingly.
With everything that’s happening in the abdominal wall and pelvic floor, it’s no wonder many women feel weaker in the final trimester. Reassure your client that it’s all normal and that it’s OK to use lighter weight in her workouts as her due date approaches.
Although we don’t want to scare our clients, they may need to be reminded that these changes to their workout regime aren’t permanent, but the consequences of pushing beyond the capacity of their abdominal wall and pelvic floor may be.
During the third trimester, minimize the amount of your client is lying on her back, especially if she experiences lightheadedness, tingling in her legs, breathlessness, or general discomfort in that position. If she does experience any of these symptoms, you can try having her perform these exercises at an incline of about 15 degrees or eliminate supine exercises altogether. Check in with her regularly and make adjustments as necessary.
Many health and fitness professionals feel that as long as a woman feels OK in supine position — that is, she doesn’t feel lightheaded or nauseated, and her breathing is not impaired during or after the bout of exercise or stretching — she should be fine in this position, but most international guidelines still state that we should avoid this position for prolonged periods, especially in the final trimester.
These guidelines seem to change quite frequently as the available science changes and we learn more. Make it a point to stay informed of the most current recommendations to ensure your pregnant clients’ safety and comfort.
Pelvic girdle pain (PGP) is very common during pregnancy, often affecting the pubic symphysis and sacroiliac joints. Your client may describe this as:
The degree of pain can vary from a mild annoyance to severe pain requiring a walking aid. At the front of the pelvis, women might point to the pubic bone and talk about a sharp, stabbing pain in that area. For some women the pain radiates into the inner thigh as well. Pain around the sacroiliac joint will often feel like a “pain in the butt” and some women will think they have sciatica (but no pins and needles or numbness). Your client may be unlucky enough to have pain in more than one joint of the pelvis.
Many women say getting into and out of bed, standing on one leg to put on shoes and socks, or walking make the pain in the front of the pelvis worse. In the SI joint, this pain is often aggravated by similar activities that cause a torsion or twisting of the pelvis, such as walking, rolling in bed, and getting into and out of the car.
If your client describes this kind of pain, refer her to her healthcare provider for evaluation and pain management. As with low back pain, it is important for this client to be screened for any serious issues, and her physician will usually ask specific questions that will indicate if there is a need for further investigation.
In terms of your role with this client, try and find ways to keep her exercising. Pain and immobility can take a physical and emotional toll, so you play an important role in using exercise as therapy. Specific stabilizing exercises haven’t been shown to be particularly beneficial at reducing pelvic girdle pain, but exercise in general seems to have a benefit for other aspects of physical and mental health. Liaising with the client’s physical therapists can help guide you in the program creation.
If your client is experiencing pain the gym, some simple adjustments to common exercises in your client’s program may be necessary to reduce pelvic girdle pain. For example:
When working with your client, remember that the words that you use really matter. Avoid using terms like stable and unstable and don’t tell your client that her pelvis is “out of alignment.” Explain that although she feels pain and her joints are sensitized, she is not doing damage by exercising, and reassure her that the vast majority of women find that their pain disappears within a few weeks or months of delivery.
You client may mention discomfort in her wrists while performing exercises in the gym. Wrist pain, numbness, and tingling — all symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome — are common in the final trimester due to the increased fluid compressing the median nerve as it runs through the front of the wrist. If you suspect your client has carpal tunnel syndrome, refer her to a physical therapist or occupational therapist for assessment and treatment recommendations.
Weight-bearing exercises that place the wrist in extension may aggravate your client’s wrist joint pain. Adapting exercises to reduce or eliminate wrist extension — such as using a rolled up towel under the heel of the hand — may relieve her symptoms. If she moves her wrist in a way that tends to make the pain worse with some exercises, changing the position of her wrist into a more neutral (less extreme) position may also ease the pain and allow her to continue.
At this stage in pregnancy (and sometimes earlier), symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction often appear. Your client may experience stress urinary incontinence and heaviness in her perineum, and she may feel an increased urgency that makes her rush to the restroom more frequently.
If your client has any of these symptoms and she isn’t already seeing a pelvic health physiotherapist, your best bet is to refer her to one for an assessment and advice. Working closely with her pelvic health physiotherapist should help you to continue guiding your client through her workouts with appropriate modifications.
We recommend most women avoid exercises that apply a lot of downward pressure on the pelvic floor during their final trimester, especially those with a history of pelvic floor dysfunction or those who are experiencing symptoms. This also includes making sure your client refrains from performing a valsalva maneuver (holding her breath and bearing down) while training.
While a small percentage of high-level athletes are able to continue higher intensity activities (with appropriate scaling) without detriment, this will not be most of your pregnant clients’ experience. For many women it is sensible to avoid deep, wide, loaded squats and high-impact work such as running, box jumps, or double unders in the final weeks of pregnancy.
Encourage your client to rest immediately after her workouts to help improve recovery and keep her muscles strong. At this stage of her pregnancy, it may not be the best idea for her to follow up her workout with several hours of errands, housework, or other activities that require her to stay on her feet.
Long walks may start to irritate the pelvis and leave your client feeling achy or heavy. Limiting walking time may be necessary to reduce impact and stress on the pelvic floor if your client is symptomatic. If your client usually takes a walk for 30 to 45 minutes and feels any discomfort during or after it, encourage her to break up the walk into two sessions of 20 to 25 minutes at different times of the day. If that’s still too much, she can try taking just one walk for 15 to 20 minutes and see how her body responds.
Exercise plays an important part in maintaining health and wellbeing throughout pregnancy, and as a fitness expert, you can help modify the exercises in order to keep your clients moving. Developing a working relationship with local health professionals will be pivotal in providing the best outcomes for your pregnant clients.
Armstrong S, Fernando R, Columb M, Jones T. Cardiac index in term pregnant women in the sitting, lateral, and supine positions: an observational, crossover study. Anesth Analg. 2011 Aug;113(2):318–22.
Gjestland K, Bø K, Owe KM, Eberhard-Gran M. Do pregnant women follow exercise guidelines? Prevalence data among 3482 women, and prediction of low-back pain, pelvic girdle pain and depression. Br J Sports Med. 2013 May;47(8):515–20.
Mogren IM, Pohjanen AI. Low back pain and pelvic pain during pregnancy: prevalence and risk factors. Spine. 2005 Apr 15;30(8):983–91.
Vermani E, Mittal R, Weeks A. Pelvic girdle pain and low back pain in pregnancy: a review. Pain Pract. 2010 Jan;10(1):60–71.
The post Common Concerns Affecting Exercise in the Third Trimester appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.
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Scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest, Tieghan Gerard’s food photography is instantly recognizable. All the recipes she posts on her blog, Half Baked Harvest, are just so colorful and lush. I mean, peach and burrata pizza! Orzo-stuffed pesto zucchini! You’re basically forced into cooking whatever she has on her site.
Gerard has been blogging about food for over five years now, but she’s been cooking for her large family (she’s one of seven kids!) since she was 15 years old. She says she gets a lot of her recipe inspiration from her family members (one of whom is an Olympic snowboarding champion), traveling, and the seasons (read: she loves vegetables). She recently came out with her first cookbook, Half Baked Harvest Cookbook, where she shares even more gorgeous recipes created in her barn in Colorado.
On a recent visit to New York, Gerard stopped by Kitchn’s office to talk about the Instant Pot, her go-to recipes for feeding her family, and how food blogging has changed in the last five years.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Having a small backyard area doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the outdoors as much as those with large, sweeping grass lawns (in fact, without all the mowing, you might just enjoy yourself more). We’ve rounded up 10 inspiring spaces that are both beautiful and smart uses of their tiny little selves.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
If there’s one store we don’t talk about enough on this site, it’s Macy’s. The department store always has great deals on clothes, accessories, home stuff, kitchen gear, and more. And right now, you can take an additional 10 to 20 percent off select home and kitchen items, which already happen to be on major sale; all you need to do is enter the code HOME at checkout.
With thousands of items on sale, finding the best bang for your buck is easier said than done. To help, we’re sharing our seven favorite kitchen deals below.
This sale ends tomorrow, so stock up while the offer lasts!
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People like to get healthy, burn body fat, increase their aerobic capacity, and improve their cognitive function. The ketogenic diet is an excellent way to obtain those outcomes, which partially explains its meteoric rise in popularity. But people also like to drink alcohol. You might say it’s a toxin—I wouldn’t disagree. You might say we’d be better off without it—perhaps. The fact remains that people have been drinking for tens of thousands of years, and they’re not going to stop anytime soon.
Can keto and alcohol coexist? Is there anything we need to take into consideration?
First things first, does alcohol inhibit ketosis?
There are very few human studies that even look at this issue. Let’s go over the best one I could find.
A 2002 study out of Poland examined the bodies of 16 recently deceased people who had died from hypothermia, mostly alcohol-induced. Most were alcoholics. They found that ketone levels and blood-alcohol levels were inversely proportional. The higher the blood alcohol, the lower the ketones. The higher the ketones, the lower the blood alcohol. In the discussion section, the authors explain:
Liver cells ‘‘engaged’’ in ethanol utilization do not accumulate larger amounts of Ac-CoA (which is a substrate for ketogenesis) because an increase in the NADH/NAD ratio during ethanol oxidation inhibits b-oxidation of fatty acids, and the acetate created from ethanol is activated to AcCoA mainly in the non-liver tissues which cannot produce ketone bodies.
In other words, at a high enough intake, alcohol metabolism supersedes and inhibits ketogenesis because both processes occur in the liver along similar pathways. The Polish study is an extreme example—alcoholics, hypothermia, death—but the basic mechanism is sound.
In real world situations, however, where people are having a drink or two, low-sugar alcohol (red wine, spirits) is unlikely to derail ketosis. Sugary drinks will inhibit ketosis because of the sugar. Alcohol-induced junk food bingeing will inhibit ketosis because of the junk you’re eating. But it appears to take some serious doses of ethanol to make a noticeable dent in your ketone production. Even then, a degree or two less ketosis isn’t the end of the world (unless you have a serious health condition warranting constant ketosis, in which case are you sure you should be drinking?).
A friend of mine, Mark Moschel, is the health evangelist for Dry Farm Wines and an avid keto dieter and self-experimenter. He recently ran an interesting experiment to determine the effects of his low-sugar dry-farmed wines on ketosis. (If you’re a numbers junkie and love charts, you’ll appreciate seeing how he put it together.)
He fasted for three days to get deep into ketosis. Two days in, he opened a bottle of wine and started drinking.
After the first glass, there was no change. Ketones and blood sugar held steady.
After the second glass, ketones dropped a bit. Sugar rose a bit.
After the third, ketones dropped some more. Sugar went down this time.
Yet, at no point was he “out of ketosis.” Even after the third glass, he was still showing 1.4 mmol. And upon waking the next morning, he had bounced back to 2.3 mmol. By the afternoon, ketones were back above 4 mmol.
Something tells me the “3-day wine fast” is going to catch on in some circles….
Maybe. A commonly reported side effect that hasn’t been shown in studies (because the studies haven’t been done) is reduced alcohol tolerance on keto. People report getting drunk quicker and having worse hangovers. Let’s assume for the sake of this post that it’s true, that the anecdotes are conveying something that’s actually happening to a large portion of the keto-eating world. What could be causing reduced alcohol tolerance?
Alcohol detoxification occurs along two enzymatic pathways, one of which—the CYP2E1 pathway—is also activated by ketone bodies. The CYP2E1 pathway is ultimately a detox pathway, but some of the metabolites it produces in response to the various toxins it processes, like alcohol, acetaminophen (Tylenol), and tobacco, can increase liver inflammation and peroxidative damage. If the ketones you’re making are triggering CYP2E1, drinking alcohol may put you over the top and push you toward greater oxidative stress.
This could explain part of the reason why drinking on an empty stomach (fasting, hence elevated ketones) tends to heighten the toxicity and enhance the hangover.
A high-fat diet can very quickly become a high-omega-6 fat diet if you aren’t careful about the foods you’re eating. You’re eating out for lunch every day at Chipotle; it’s low carb, but everything is cooked in rice bran oil. You’re snacking on almonds and sunflower seeds. Your favorite meat is whole chicken with the skin on, and you use the chicken drippings to cook up a bunch of greens. The more fat, the better, right?
All those foods are moderately-to-very high in omega-6. If that’s a daily diet, you’re getting upwards of 30+ grams of omega-6 fats, mostly linoleic acid. Why is this a problem specifically in the context of alcohol?
Omega-6 fatty acids, especially linoleic acid, are particularly harmful when you drink alcohol:
Polyunsaturated fats combined with alcohol also raise CYp2E1 more than alcohol alone, an indication of the combination’s toxicity.
Saturated fats, such as cocoa butter, coconut oil, and monounsaturated fats, such as avocado oil, olive oil, are far better in the context of alcohol.
High-fat diets are liver-intensive. The more fat you eat, the more choline you need to help metabolize it. High-fat diets with inadequate choline can lead to fatty liver, even if you’re eating the most Primal-friendly balanced source of fats.
Alcohol is also liver-intensive. The more alcohol you drink, the more choline you need to help metabolize it. High-alcohol diets with inadequate choline almost always lead to fatty liver, even if you’re drinking the healthiest, purest sources of ethanol.
Combining alcohol and a high-fat ketogenic diet requires even more choline than either alone. The best sources of choline are egg yolks and liver. Make sure you’re eating enough of one or the other to support your liver.
Whether it’s coffee, chocolate, ginger, turmeric, green tea, the phytonutrients within the wine itself, or even non-psychoactive cannabidiol in cannabis, most plants make alcohol less toxic. Keto dieters who drink should definitely eat some or all of these foods.
Alcohol consumption presents a few notable challenges to people following a ketogenic diet, but they aren’t by any means insurmountable. Provided you eat a good ketogenic diet—not too much omega-6, adequate choline, plenty of phytonutrients— and make good beverage choices, moderate amounts of alcohol shouldn’t throw you out of ketosis or pose any special threat to your health.
I know we have a lot of readers with considerable experience following a ketogenic diet. Have you noticed anything different about the effects of alcohol? Has drinking hit your harder? Has it inhibited ketosis for you? I’d love to hear your experiences.
For those who are interested in a keto-friendly option, Dry Farm Wines is what I drink (and have for the last two+ years). (For those of you who stopped by our keto cocktail hour at Paleo f(x), we were serving up Dry Farms Wines there.) Mark M. and his team are good people in my book, and they get what the Primal message (and keto living) is all about. In my estimation, they’re the perfect choice for keto dieters who want to drink good wine and limit the negative health ramifications of alcohol consumption.
All their wines are lower in alcohol, 12.5% ABV or lower (validated by regular tests). Less alcohol, less toxicity.
All their wines are also low in sugar, with a maximum of 1 gram per liter. A fourth of a gram of sugar per glass doesn’t make a difference.
All the wines are dry-farmed, meaning they’re less “washed out” from excessive watering, more complex, and more of the “grapeness” comes through in the finished product. That usually means a higher percentage of polyphenols as well, many of which mitigate the deleterious effects of consuming ethanol as mentioned above. If you’re interested, check ’em out.
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a proud affiliate of theirs as well as a big fan. I only support and advertise a few companies on Mark’s Daily Apple that I thoroughly believe support healthy Primal living in the modern world. If it’s not in my kitchen, it’s not on my blog.
Have a great day, everybody. Take care and Grok on.
The post Alcohol While Keto? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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Buying a housewarming gift is sometimes easier said than done. Balancing what someone would want with something you’d actually want to give them (look, we all could appreciate a water filtration system, but … ) is a task in and of itself, and it can leave you buying two bottles of wine and calling it a day. But while wine is (almost) always appreciated, sometimes it’s the unexpected that can make an impact.
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