Where to start… hmmm – how about with Fat Books!

When I walk into my kitchen today, I am not alone. Whether we know it or not, none of us is. We bring fathers and mothers and kitchen tables, and every meal we have ever eaten. Food is never just food. It's also a way of getting at something else: who we are, who we have been, and who we want to be. - Molly Wizenberg

I like this quote because it’s so real. Oddly most of my memories of my mother’s cooking has to do with the things I couldn’t stand to eat. Oyster stew, canned sauerkraut… gack. There were good things, she made a killer potato salad and all of my siblings and I would fight over the dumplings in the chicken soup.

Yes, I am smiling. They are good memories, hence my point for the quote.

So why this blog? I’m not really a blogger, I leave that to my younger sibling. But I’ve spent the better part of my life being overweight and it’s not fun. I’ve tried just about every diet there is and most of that was being hungry and miserable. Some would say, why not surgery? I say, if I can’t fix it naturally then I was meant to be fat. That and my Aunt almost died twice with that kind of surgery. So no…

The interesting thing in retrospect is that for all of my failures, I’ve learned. What I would dismiss a few years ago I’ve turned back to look at again. Younger and wiser.

You know, you’re only as old as you think you are. I’m an immortal 25.

Ah, I’m smiling again.

So, with all the knowledge I’ve obtained over the years I decided to write about it so I can see where I go. But you know, I hunt all over the ‘net for things like high-fat recipes and ways of eating and they’re slim pickins. I write for a hobby, and I love to cook, so here I am to blog about it. Where do I start on this journey?

Well, I’ve about me, so you know where I stand at the moment. I’ve been eating high-fat for about two weeks, but I was also eating high-carb and high-protein. I still felt crappy, no energy and my weight wasn’t budging. Tonight, for the first time a long time, I’ve had a bit of energy. Hoorah!

Then I read a few more books about high-fat and low-carbing it. So I made a few changes. One came from a book by Barry Groves called ‘Eat Fat Get Thin’.

I was very inspired and I think it gave me the last key I needed to get myself on the right track. And while I agree with him on the high-fat low-carb moderate-low protein, I think there are a few things that people need and need to take into account. (I’ll get into those in a different post).

However… you knew there was a ‘however’ right? While I could blog and blog until the raw milk comes to my hometown… (just a minute, too funny)… it’s best if you want to see where I’m coming from to give you some primer books.

Well, with this being a high-fat diet then we should start with why I decided to do a high-fat diet.

This diet is 65% fat, 20% protein and 15% carbs. 60 grams a day for carbs. Watch my protein, but let me tell you, you can’t eat too much fat. Especially went you start out. And I get really full. It’s nice to not be hungry all the time.

Does that much fat shock you? Most people would think, ‘how do you do that?’ Eat out of a bucket of lard? Hehehehe.

No.

You need to learn what foods have the high fats in them. Use fats wisely and get the nutrition you need. I’m not saying that fruit, veg, and grains are bad. But if you’re ill or overweight you may have a problem with what I call the thrifty gene or your body just can process them. With that being said there are going to be people that will absolutely protest that this is the evilest of evil diets. That fat is of Satan and it will kill you. (I’m shaking my finger at you like you know those people would).

I’m not a doctor, I’m not boring enough to get that kind of vocabulary. But I am a person and I’m smart enough to connect the dots and think for myself and I will read up on stuff. The things touted to me by credited and certified doctors have not worked for me. So, I take my health into my own hands!

Vive la my hands!

So let’s get into the basis of my primer books on fats and why they are the thing you should be eating. These authors have done all the work with all the wibbly-wobbly sciency-whiency information to it (which honestly, bores me) so I don’t have to! Yay!

Exhibit A) Deep Nutrition by Dr. Catherine Shanahan

This is the book that has all the science behind why she believes in the 4 pillars of nutrition and that fat, saturated fat is a keystone. Especially that vegetable oils are really Satan.

Though technically I don’t believe in Satan. But it’s what people say.

Exhibit B) Food Rules by Dr. Catherine Shanahan

An easier read of Exhibit A.

No, I’m not a lawyer.

Exhibit C) Eat Fat Get Thin by Barry Groves, PhD

Where Deep Nutrition got me started, this one got me believing just how important a high fat, low-carb diet is.

Exhibit D) Eat Fat Lose Fat by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD

All about coconut oil and what it and other fats do for us. Believe me when I say, coconut oil is amazing and the best oil you can use for this way of eating. Not the only way, but a share of my daily fat intake is coconut oil.

So, what’s the diff between Dr. and PhD? I always wondered about that. I’ll have to check that out.

Exhibit E) Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD

This is a more in depth read of not just fats but other things which I will write about later. Sally Fallon is the President of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Price’s book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration might interest you to read. (a little boring but he gets the point across)

And lastly but not least…

Exhibit F) Why We Get Fat and What to do about it by Gary Taubes

You know, I think this is the very first one I read about the pros of fat, and I need to go back and read it again. I got a little put out when my sister (low-fat believer) talked about how he was on the Dr. Oz show and how he refused a cholesterol test. So I had to go find out why, if you talk the talk you gotta walk the walk. Turns out the Dr. Oz show wanted Taubes to look bad so they cut out anything irrelevant that he told them. Figures…

Alright, off you go, you have homework to do.