What’s been showing up on your doorstep from Amazon lately? Here’s a little look at what’s been coming to my house. I’ve been trying more and more clothing from Amazon and it continues to be hit or miss. I wanted to try Prime Wardrobe, which is like the styling services in that the clothes come to you for free and you only pay for what you decide to keep, but after about an hour of searching, I couldn’t find anything I wanted that was part of that Prime Wardrobe program. I really don’t understand why all of their clothing doesn’t quality, but it doesn’t and that’s that. However, there is tons available for Prime free shipping and free returns, there are some awesome items at great prices, so there’s lots to be excited about!

One note of warning: Be careful when shopping Amazon (I’m sure you know this already), but you may find something on your search results that says it’s Prime, but when you go to the item and you change the size or color, it loses that Prime status. You definitely want the option of free returns. On to the shopping…first a few non-clothing options…

My favorite coffee – at Whole Foods, this same product, same size and everything, costs $11.99. From Amazon, it ranges from $7.49 – 8.48. You know how Amazon prices fluctuate. I’ve never seen it higher or lower than this range. Either way, it’s at least two dollars cheaper than from Whole Foods. And it comes to my door!

New Caramel flavored Nutpods – This is now my favorite flavor and all I buy. They are available elsewhere, but not for this low of a price. If you’re used to drinking your coffee sweet, I recommend using a liquid stevia and just reducing the amount you use slowly over time. Eventually, you can drop to zero sweetener and a yummy creamer like this will be heavenly! Side note: I don’t see anything wrong with a little real heavy cream in your coffee if that makes you happy and doesn’t cause any ill effects. Personally, I find a little cream now and then is fine, but I love it so much that once I start down the cream path, it’s hard to stop and then I do start to experience some negative effects – breakouts, joint pain, etc.. These Nutpods are more expensive, but it’s still way cheaper than buying coffee at a shop and I really do enjoy it. I try to save the cream for when I’m away from home.

Zippers – Not the least bit exciting, but necessary for the sewing projects in my new office. I couldn’t find bulk zippers in the color I needed here locally, so Amazon to the rescue. I included this one in my list simply because it is really what I’ve been priming lately and also to remind you that you really can get just about anything through Amazon. Just don’t buy supplements from them!

From here to the end, it’s all clothing items. I do have a couple questions for you about products I’ve been hearing a lot about so I hope you make it to the end and can weigh in on these questionable products. This post includes the stock photos from Amazon (because I have not yet perfected the mirror selfie), but I did make a video to show you the clothes in real life and give you my thoughts on fit, sizing and quality. Be sure to watch that for more details. And if you want to purchase any of these items and find that they are currently unavailable, just click the “email me” button where there would usually be an “add to cart” button and you’ll be notified when it’s back in stock.

The best Joggers – I loved these so much, I bought them in the navy and the Gray Spacedye. At my 5’3″, these are true cropped length, which I love for spring, summer and fall. They’re lightweight, workout type material, yet still very soft and comfy. I don’t work out in them, but wear them around the house or even out casually. I’ve actually worn them for some hiking too. I had to size up for the fit I prefer. Some comments said they run large, but both my pair ran small so I was happy with the mediums.

This Kimono – I have been looking for a lightweight cardigan or kimono to wear in the summer months, but haven’t had any luck – until now. I’ve asked my styling services to send me one, but they either haven’t obliged or I’ve been sent items that just didn’t work for me. So I decided to see what I could find on Amazon. There were a couple that caught my eye (there were tons to choose from), but I decided to try this one because I thought the colors were so pretty and would go with a lot of different outfits.

This Maxi Dress – I’ve seen this Maxi Dress on a lot of bloggers and I love the look of it – except for that very deep V. But on other real life people, it seems to not be so low, so I decided to give it a try. This seems like the kind of dress you can wear around the house or out on the town – so flexible! You can search for a striped dress and find what looks like the same dress from lots of different makers. The only advice I can give is that the material and quality seems to vary widely. I wanted a thicker material that wouldn’t wrinkle and show every lump and bump. This one was just what I was looking for so if you like this look, definitely use the link to this specific dress.

This cute t-shirt dress with ruffle sleeve – Can you tell I like stripes? I have a t-shirt just like this and I love it. Basic dresses like this are what I live in during the warm months and with the ruffle, it could even be nice enough for a night out. I would recommend sizing down unless you want a very loose fit. One nice thing about this dress is that there is no itchy tag at the neck – there’s no tag at all!

You are my sunshine vintage t-shirt – my mom used to sing that song to me all the time and I sometimes still sing it to my kids so this top just makes me happy! It’s super soft and seems very good quality. I can’t resist keeping this one.

Crochet detail swim coverup – Granted, I don’t expect to look quite like this lady in this coverup, but I like the idea of this one and I also like the idea of a real coverup. All I’ve ever worn as a cover up is old t-shirts and shorts. At 45, I’d like to have something a little nicer. Do you see how this is supposed to be that crinkly fabric? I ordered two because the first one was damaged and neither was the kind of fabric pictured. This is why I’m writing this post for you – so you can get all the real details. Turns out, it’s an uncomfortable polyester with no stretch and not at all breathable. It’s a pretty design, but in the fabric I received, it’s a no-go for me.

Tankini Top – I haven’t bought a new swimsuit in a few years and I needed one that offered appropriate coverage, support and was still cute. I haven’t found any in store that I liked enough to bring home, so I decided to try Amazon. I mostly wear a swim suit to actually swim laps, do water exercise classes, take my kids to water parks, etc. so I don’t need anything fancy for lounging around at resorts (boo hoo). This one seemed promising. I did find quite a few others that I liked, but many were not Prime eligible, so I just ended up with two to try. If you’re in the market for a bikini, there are lots to choose from. Make sure to watch the video to see what the colors really looked like on this top.

Tankini Top #2 – Thinking the top above might be too loose and flowy for swimming and water aerobics, I ordered this one. I thought it would look nice with the navy shorts below and seemed more fitted. The colors are pretty, but I’m not sure about the fit.

Lululemon knock-off shorts for a steal! – I almost always exercise in leggings, but I bought these shorts to see if they would work for swim shorts. Low and behold, they are great. The inseam on these is a little longer than the real Lululemon version and that suits me just fine. I have the navy and that’s why I bought the swim tops in navy to hopefully coordinate. I have worn these shorts for a day at the beach, walking and just around the house and find them very comfortable. The only downside is no pocket big enough for a phone. Otherwise, they’re great and an amazing dupe at an amazing price. I recommend sizing up in these. I have the medium and love the fit.

“Dreamers” Cardigan – I received an almost identical cardigan in my latest Trendsend box and really loved it, really wanted to keep it, but really couldn’t afford the $79 price tag. Then I saw this sweater on another blog and thought it looked so much the same I had to try it. Turns out it is identical except for the color. This one is a solid blush and the Trendsend version was a bit of a marled fabric. For all intents and purposes they are the same though. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

Denim Shorts – Last, but not least are these denim shorts from Levis. I’ve been on the hunt for an age appropriate and great fitting pair of denim shorts for a few years now. I was skeptical of these, but am really, really happy with them. I love the fit, the wash, the inseam length, everything. I’ve finally found the everyday denim shorts I’ve been looking for!

Do you have some great Amazon finds? Please share in the comments. I hate to give so much of my business to one company, but Amazon makes it so easy for us and they really do have some amazing options at amazing prices.

These two items below are on my maybe list. I’ve seen them on lots of other blogs, but am hesitant. Tell me if you’ve used either item and share your thoughts, pretty please.

Tinkle Facial Razors and The Exfoliating Foot Peel

That’s it for today. Memorial day is on the horizon so I hope you cherish time with your family this weekend, recognizing the sacrifice made by so many to keep us safe and free.

❤️, Elizabeth

Way back in 2015 when I started this blog, Paleo was cool. Sure it had probably peaked in terms of Google analytics, but it was still a hot search term.

I’ve always said “Paleo” with a bit of hesitancy because of the connection to Paleolithic Man that so many in this space emphasize. At the beginning, I would get comments/questions from readers or viewers on YouTube questioning my use of certain ingredients like almonds or yeast. “Is that really Paleo,” they’d ask. Meaning, would prehistoric man have eaten that particular food. My answer was always, “I don’t care.” I hope I said it more politely than that.

The truth is, Paleo was trendy. I really have no idea why for sure, but I believe it became popular because it was helping people. There were certain bloggers and authors that helped propel Paleo into the trendy category, but again, that was for good reason. At it’s core, Paleo is an anti-inflammatory diet because it excludes inflammatory foods. If there is some connection to what early man might have eaten, I think that’s just fine but totally irrelevant.

When you remove grains, dairy, industrial seed oils, legumes and refined sugars, you are removing the primary dietary sources of inflammation and inflammation is at the root of most of our chronic health conditions today.

There is a health podcast I listen to and really enjoy, but they apparently began life as a Paleo-focused show and lately have been trying to steer themselves away from that designation. The episode I listened to today actually kind of made me angry because they were (in my opinion) teasing and putting down, bullying you might even say, Paleo and people who follow this diet. I really don’t know why they were saying those things and I don’t want to speculate, but I think they’re doing their listeners a disservice because this way of eating offers a lot of benefits.

Since the beginning, I’ve used Paleo as a template. Sure, I stuck very closely to the core tenets of the diet for a good long time while I got used to it and my body adapted and I was working to get off of the medications that had been controlling my Crohn’s disease. It was an elimination diet of sorts. And I have very casually added certain foods back in from time-to-time that do not fit the Paleo template. Some I add in more freely because testing has shown those foods to be ok for my body (like good quality dairy). But others, I just really want on occasion and so I eat them and pay attention to how I feel afterward. Here are a few examples of how I step out of the Paleo diet:

• Grass-fed butter: I will use this on occasion when the taste of real, old-fashioned butter is preferred. It causes me no harm whatsoever.
• Heavy cream: I almost always make my coffee at home, but when I have coffee out, I usually drink it black. Sometimes though, the coffee is so bitter, I can’t enjoy it without some sort of dressing up, so I opt for a shot of pure cream over any sort of sugar, chemical or otherwise.
• Fresh corn in the summer time: This is one I know will really set me back if I have too much, so I will have one bite. Literally just one bite during corn on the cob season and I savor it.
• Sugar: I do love sugar and it sure does hate me. But I believe firmly that the sugar taste buds will go away if you just leave them alone for a while. This is why an elimination diet like Whole30 is so valuable. By the end of it, most fruits will even taste way too sweet to me. And some vegetables too. I know! It’s crazy. But I’m human and sometimes (often hormonally driven) my sugar cravings get the better of me and I give in. Peanut butter cups, good dark chocolate, ice cream, even stuff that I know is horrible for me like jelly beans sometimes make their way into my shopping cart. I eat and enjoy, but I always pay for it in terms of joint pain so I don’t let it get out of control.
• Oats: Yes, oats are a grain so excluded on the Paleo diet, but I will eat oatmeal on occasion. I make homemade granola for my family and sometimes I’ll have a little bowl with real milk and it’s a huge treat. This small amount on rare occasions doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
• Restaurant meals: This is where all bets are off because you are not in control of your food. Even at the very best restaurants, there is a pretty high chance that you are going to be served something you don’t want. I know that gluten is the number one killer for me so I do all I can to stress to the staff that my meal must be gluten free, but I let everything else go – dairy, sugar, soy, etc. Now I won’t intentionally eat those things, but I don’t go crazy avoiding them. For example, I’ll order a bunless burger, leave off the cheese, but I don’t ask if there is soy in their sauce or seasoning. BUT if you know that soy is the real killer for you, then you have to be vigilant about that and let the other things go. It’s a balance. This is also why we eat at home 99% of the time and only have a handful of restaurants that we will visit. When I travel, I take lots of food along, but also extensively research restaurants before I leave home.

I write this to you because I don’t want you to feel in any way ashamed or embarrassed about the way you eat if it is what is keeping you healthy. I don’t really care what’s trendy or popular or otherwise. I know that the basic tenets of Paleo are keeping me and my family healthy for now and so that’s what we’re following. Sure, I could change the name or just say we follow an anti-inflammatory diet, but Paleo has been well-established and I think people know what it means.

In terms of search engine popularity, Keto ranks WAY higher than Paleo. So does Instant Pot for that matter. Because this is a business, I will produce keto and Instant Pot recipes, but it’s not all I’ll do because I want to stay true to you and to myself. You can rest assured that every recipe I create will be at the very least gluten free and almost all will be 100% Paleo. I know many of you are also following Autoimmune Paleo and so I make an effort to include recipes that fit that diet as well.

I guess this post was part rant, part education, and I hope it was helpful in some way.

Who’s with me on Team Paleo?

I have always loved to read magazines, but lately I’ve become so disenchanted with the biased and leading “health” advice they all have to offer. For months, I’ve been tearing out articles with the intention of writing my rebuttals here, but worried about ruffling feathers. Frankly, I’ve finally hit my breaking point and feel I have to present a balanced view.

My current subscriptions include:

• Health
• Good Housekeeping
• Eating Well (formerly Cooking Light)
• Southern Living

Over the course of the past year, each of these magazines listed has published what I believe to be misleading health/medical advice, but for this particular article, in order to keep it from reaching the length of War and Peace, I’m going to pick on Health Magazine.

Each time a new issue arrives and I make time to read it, I rip out at least two articles that I believe to be full of out-dated and misleading advice. Unfortunately, this magazine has a much larger circulation that my little blog here, so I’m counting on you to help spread the word. What word is that? Simply that diet and lifestyle factors DO, IN FACT, influence many disease conditions. There are many published, scientific articles attesting to the fact (just search PubMed for something like: Paleo diet and Type 2 Diabetes for one example). But potentially even more importantly are the thousands, perhaps millions of anecdotal (meaning real-life) accounts of people’s lives being absolutely turned around – for the better – by changing to an anti-inflammatory diet, seeking to remove as many toxins from daily life as possible and managing stress and sleep. These are the principles of functional medicine and they are effective.

Yet turn to almost any magazine on the news stand today, even ones in which you would not expect to find health advice, and you are likely to see some author, some with Registered Dietician (RD) credentials, many without, boldly stating that diet and lifestyle are absolutely unproven to have ANY effect.

If I were someone who heard a passing comment that maybe the Paleo diet could help control my Crohn’s disease, then later that day, picked up my favorite magazine and read the words from someone I assumed to be an expert – because you have to be an expert to write a magazine article, right? – tell me that there is no scientific basis for or proof of the diet’s success, I would likely push that thought out of my head.

I hope that my tone is not coming across as angry, but actually, I am pretty angry about this. So I guess I do want to sound angry and sort of preach-y. There is way too much bad science being thrown around these days on very high profile platforms and those of us who know first-hand the power of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle need to spread the word as far and wide as we can.

Let’s break down one example from the latest issue of Health:

From their “Our Doc Will See You Now” column by Roshini Rajapaksa, MD

Question: A naturopath suggested that I go on the candida diet to treat my yeast infections. Is there any science to back the diet up?

Answer: Not really, no. Most yeast infections are caused by an overgrowth of a naturally occurring yeast species (called candida albicans) in the vagina, which can lead to itching, burning and white, odorless discharge. Proponents of the candida diet believe that certain foods – including sugar, gluten, alcohol and some dairy – promote the growth of yeast in the body and that by eliminating those foods, you can avoid an overpopulation of candida albicans. But there’s not a whole lot of evidence that the super-strict diet works as a treatment for yeast infections. If you are getting recurrent infections, it’s important to figure out why so you can treat the cause. Your annoying, uncomfortable symptoms may be the result of a weakened immune system or a side effect of a medication you’re taking. They might even be related to an undiagnosed medical condition. An MD can help you get to the root of the problem. And she may actually recommend one aspect of the candida diet: cutting back on sugar. A few small studies have shown that eating less of the sweet stuff might help prevent yeast infections.

Health, April 2019, p. 40

Ok, let’s break this down:

First off, the doctor says, No, there isn’t any science to back up the candida diet. Many readers would stop right there because that was a pretty clear answer. She goes on to say that there’s not a whole lot of evidence to support the diet. The question was, “Is there ANY science to back the diet up?” The doctor answers, “No.” Now she’s saying there’s not a whole lot, which makes me think there is some evidence. Then at the end of the response, the doctor explains that a few small studies have shown that eating less of the sweet stuff may help.

*This reader is already seeing a naturopath so she is likely interested in a natural approach to healthcare. I wish the doctor responding to the question would have done more to support this reader’s preferences. The reader is likely looking for validation of her desire to go the natural route so why not lead with, “Yes, there is some evidence that diet can be effective.”

Secondly, the doctor refers to the candida diet as super strict. Again, very negative and not at all encouraging to a person who is likely suffering. Let’s face it, yeast infections are horrible and if the reader is seeing a doctor about it and writing into a magazine and looking for alternative approaches, it is likely that she is having recurrent infections. She is looking for some hope here and the doctor is not giving it willingly.

On the positive side, the doctor does say that if the reader is having recurrent infections, she should see a doctor. That is true. However, the reader has stated that she is seeing a doctor. So this one’s a mixed bag. I take this part of the doctor’s response as a dig at naturopaths, as if they are not real doctors.

Another positive here is that the doctor indicates there is value in finding the cause of the infections, which could potentially be an undiagnosed medical condition. This is good information. There is MUCH evidence that chronic illnesses are related to inflammation in the body. Inflammation and infections go hand-in-hand. I just wish the doctor would have been more emphatic in this part of her response. And what are some first-line methods of addressing inflammation? Removing inflammatory foods!

My take on this issue: I always go straight to PubMed, the public database of articles published in peer-reviewed journals (these are the gold standard for scientific articles). After a quick search of “candida diet” and “candida diet and yeast,” I didn’t find anything that applied to this issue. Candida is found in the digestive tract normally and overgrowth there can have very negative effects. Regarding vaginal yeast infections, the evidence is more anecdotal, though small studies do exist. For a study to make it to the peer-reviewed journals, they typically must be much larger in scope and those types of studies are very expensive to conduct. The fact is that functional medicine is not receiving the funding it deserves and until that changes, we are not likely to see many large scale studies, which is unfortunate. So where does that leave us? I think there are some reputable sources worth searching. I always start with Mark Hyman, Chris Kresser, Kristi Hughes, and Jolene Brighten, all functional medicine practitioners. There are also organizations and educational institutions that will have useful, reliable information: Bauman College and the Institute for Functional Medicine to name two.

Again, this is simply my opinion, but I feel like the MDs and others responding to questions like this in these big publications and elsewhere, are coming off as very defensive – as if they are needing to defend their jobs against these “natural” docs. My wish is that they would realize we are all on the same side – that of wanting people to feel well. A traditional, Western-trained medical doctor does not receive nutrition training. They are not taught these functional, root-cause methodologies, so they cannot be expected to speak to these issues with authority. But others are trained and experts in this field.

One thing I think functional medicine has to offer that is far and above superior to Western medicine is hope. That was my experience anyway. When I read success story after success story of people healing their autoimmune diseases with diet, I felt hope for the first time in a long time. My doctor had told me that my future would most certainly contain lots of drugs, possibly very serious side effects, such as cancer, and more surgery, ultimately even the removal of my colon. Where’s the hope in that? There is none whatsoever. What functional medicine and the Paleo diet gave me, besides feeling amazingly well, was the belief that I was not trapped under the heavy burden of my disease.

I have one more thing to say here – there is no harm in changing your diet for the better. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would say there is any harm in removing added sugars from your diet. So why not lead with that? Maybe this doctor wants to start with, “No, there is no scientific basis for this diet.” But why not follow that immediately with a big BUT – there is no harm in trying. Instead, she paints a very negative picture of a real, viable option for this reader and offers her zero hope or encouragement and I think that is just wrong.

I have one more article from this same issue of Health magazine that I want to break down, but this post is already very long so I’ll do a part 2 in a couple of days. I’ll give you a preview though: it’s about Type 2 Diabetes and sugar and one person’s declaration that eating too much sugar has NOTHING to do with the onset of diabetes. My jaw literally fell open when I read those words. I can’t wait to dig into this one.

The very last page of this Health magazine contains a list of all the “experts” who contributed to the content in the magazine. There are 35 people listed. Some are MDs, many have websites and practice in various health-related fields. There is one highlighted expert in each issue and for this particular issue, it is Dr. Mark Hyman, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, founder and director of the UltraWellness Center, and considered one of the pioneers in the functional medicine movement. How can they highlight Dr. Hyman as one of their contributors and absolutely discount functional medicine principles in the actual content of their magazine? It is outrageous to me. It’s irresponsible. It’s poor journalism. 

If you are suffering from candida overgrowth, I encourage you to check these sources first:

• Dr. Amy Myers
• Dr. Josh Axe
• Dr. Brighten

I hope you found this post helpful. My parting words are this: read carefully and critically. Trust yourself. If you are confident in the ability of your naturopath, take comfort in that. If your methods of treatment involve removing unnecessary, inflammatory foods from your diet and toxins from your environment then rest assured that those are positive changes no matter what and there is absolutely no harm in trying. If you want or need some more personalized assistance in your healing journey, I’d be happy to talk with you! Just email me at elizabeth@ourpaleofamily.com.

I’ve just been studying for the the International licensing exam for health coaches and today’s lesson has been all about wellness and it’s many components. One of the key tenets of wellness is appreciating the beauty around you – finding something you can find awe-inspiring. I’m sitting up in my office right by a window – the temperature is pleasant enough to have the window open. So I have this lovely breeze drifting in, I can hear all the birds chirping away, and I’m definitely appreciating this beauty! I hope you find something to really sit in awe of today.

I’m back with another weekly meal plan for you. I’m sorry I had to skip last week. You know that sore tooth I mentioned a few weeks ago? Well, it up and died on me so last week this time I was being tortured at the periodontist’s office getting the tooth pulled and starting the process for an implant. It was not a pleasant week, but I’m thankful to say I managed without antibiotics, pain meds or the chemical mouth rinse they prescribed. If you have a similar situation and are curious about my natural antibiotic and antiseptic tricks, message me and I’ll fill you in. For now, let’s get to meal planning!

Here are the meals on tap for my family this week:

White Chicken Chili

We will have had tacos the night before so I’m sure there will be tortilla chips and salsa left that my family will enjoy. I’ll stir some mashed avocado into my soup for extra nutrition and deliciousness!

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Hotdogs, Sweet Potato Fries and okra

Nothing fancy here. This meal is for a super busy day and I know I can get this on the table in 30 minutes or less and there will be zero complaints – especially since my son found some packets of Heinz ketchup in the back of the fridge so he won’t have to eat my “healthy” ketchup!

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Cheesy Keto Casserole

Throw any veggies you have lying around into this one and have yourself a hearty, one-pot meal.

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Salmon Patties, Broccoli and rice for the family

I’ve linked my tuna patty recipe because it uses canned tuna and I plan to use canned salmon for this meal. If you have fresh or even frozen salmon fillets, consider making my Fresh Salmon Burgers instead. They’re a little more work, but totally worth it.

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Nut-crusted Chicken, cauliflower gnocchi (from Trader Joe’s) and a green salad

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Pizza Popover and Salad

Last time I made pizza popover, I doubled the meat portion and froze half. Now I’ll simply have to defrost that casserole, make the popover batter and bake. It’s amazing how much time is saved if you don’t have to do any chopping or sautéing!

That’s it for this week everyone! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

PS. You can watch me prepare many of these recipes over on my YouTube channel. People tell me it’s pretty entertaining – probably because I make a mess and lots of mistakes! So if you’d like some instruction, inspiration or entertainment, check that out.

Happy Friday again! I’ll tell you, it’s been an adjustment to get my meal planning done on Friday so you can have it for your weekend shopping, but I hope it’s worth it – meaning, I hope it’s useful for you. Of course, it does help me too. It just takes something off my plate for Saturdays.

This week’s plan will be shorter than last since breakfast and lunch looks the same every week in my house. If you want to get fancy with those meals, have at it. And please share if you have an amazing lunch or breakfast recipe. I’ll be giving you our dinner plans for the week only. Here goes…

Monday: Another inspiration from Mix and Match Mama: Honey Pecan Chicken. Doesn’t this one look delicious? I love how simple it seems too. Naturally, I will tweak this a bit – primarily cutting way back on the honey. I’ll write it up for you once it’s perfected for our Paleo ways. I’ll be cooking up some broccoli and some of Trader Joe’s famous Cauliflower Gnocchi to go alongside.

Tuesday: Baked Spaghetti and Salad

Wednesday: Salmon Patties, sautéed squash and rice.

Thursday: Jambalaya (since my son declared we don’t eat this nearly enough!) and cauliflower rice

Friday: Kids in the Kitchen!! Chicken nuggets, sweet potato fries and fresh fruit or veggies – whatever is left in the fridge!

And because I have an extremely painful tooth right now: Applesauce! **Someone please tell me you have successfully rehabilitated a tooth and prevented a root canal or extraction. I have never had anything like this before, but I don’t know how much longer I can take the pain. I’m taking lots of CBD oil and Curcumin for pain. I’m using clove essential oil topically for pain and a tincture of St. John’s Wort, both to help with the pain and hopefully bring that nerve back to life. And my dentist has given me ozone injections. Is there anything else I can try? Please send me your best advice.

That’s it for this week. Happy planning and happy cooking!

❤️, Elizabeth

We all love a little peek into other people’s lives right? I think it makes us feel normal. Nobody likes to feel that they’re the only one with a certain quirk or bad habit. I’m not saying that Amazon Priming is a bad habit – not at all! In fact, it’s one of the expenses my husband and I both consider totally worth it! So just for curiosity sake, I thought I’d show you what I’ve been priming lately…

Essential Oil Diffuser

Lighting for Videoconferencing

Hazelnut Nutpods Dairy Free Coffee Creamer

Pumpkin Spice Nutpods Diary Free Coffee Creamer

Bulletproof Decaf Coffee

Coil Hair Ties

Colorful File Folders

Instant Pot Glass Lid – for Slow-cooking

Organic Coconut Flour

Grey Knit Blazer

So that’s what I’ve been Priming lately. What are your favorite things to buy from Amazon? Do you always check there before you buy from a brick and mortar? I do all the shopping for our family and I’m pretty frugal, so I compare prices on everything. Sometimes Amazon’s prices are great and sometimes they’re outrageous. I never buy from Amazon just for the convenience. The price has to be right as well. But sometimes it sure is temping to get everything delivered right to your front door!!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

It’s Friday morning as I write this (and Lord willing, I’ll get it out to you later today), so I’m sending you wishes for a restful, fun and productive weekend. I don’t know about you, but I always preach to my kids, “work before play” because that’s what I was taught and that’s how I feel best. I love it when I get to the end of the day and know I’ve been a good steward of my time. So that’s why I threw in the productive part of my wishes for your weekend. But I digress…

Last year, I did a series called What We Ate Wednesday. You can search for that in the search box and find all those posts. I did it for most of the year. People ask me ALL THE TIME what I’m fixing for dinner, so I thought I’d just show it to you in a neat and tidy post each week. My thought was that you would turn those What We Ate posts into a meal plan for your own family, if that’s what you needed. But from talking to some of you, it turns out that this served more as a curiosity. You read what we ate, looked at the pictures and thought, “Oh, that’s nice.” Well, I’m glad you thought it was nice and interesting, but I want what I put out there to be HELPFUL.

So instead of showing you what we ate, I’m showing you what I have planned.

I have traditionally done my meal planning for the week on Saturday. This just works for me for many reasons. Here are a few:

• I prefer to do my grocery shopping on Saturday morning when the stores are less crowded and I can go by myself.
• I really focus on planning Monday – Friday meals and something about starting fresh on Saturday just works for me. If we eat out, it’s sometime over the weekend, usually Sunday, and there is typically some combination of leftovers for Saturday, so the weekends are easy and don’t require much planning.
• I like Sunday to be wholly devoted to fun and rest so by getting this huge task tackled on Saturday, I feel like I’ve set myself up for the week.
• Nobody has time to figure out what’s for dinner on a weeknight. This absolutely HAS to be done over the weekend. If you don’t currently meal plan at least one week at a time, I implore you to try. I dare say I think it will change your life.

So here goes….I’m doing my meal planning on Friday this week because I just woke up this morning thinking this would be helpful for you. Please let me know if it is! Bear in mind, this is the meal plan that works for my family. We have two adults, one teenage boy (who eats a lot) and one almost teenage girl (who hardly eats at all – unless it’s junk food). My husband has Type 1 Diabetes, I have Crohn’s and I feel best when eating lower carb/keto-style so I tend to keep our dinners fairly low in carbohydrates.

True confession: I am continually losing the dessert battle over here. People think we eat perfectly all the time, but that is simply not the case. I have tried and tried and tried to get the three of them to give up their sweets and I have been successful for very short periods of time, but it never sticks. All that to say, I keep dinner low carb knowing they will add in their carbohydrates in the form of dessert. The kids in particular, are very lean and active and need some carbs. My husband only needs what he accounts for in the insulin he takes, so that’s always a fine balance for him. I don’t typically keep homemade sweets in the house because I can’t resist them, but the candy comes in for holidays and from grandparents and there never seems to be an end to the supply. I have tried fruit as a dessert and sometimes that works – but then they get chocolate too! So I just gave up. I used to make my paleo treats, which are really, really good, but they’re so good that I can’t resist them and I really shouldn’t eat them very often. Because of all of this, my meal plans will be fairly low carb. You can always add a sweet potato or other starchy vegetable or some rice if you are not trying to stay lower carb in your household.

Before I get into the specific meal plan for this week, I’ll point you back to this post where I talked a little more about meal planning and offer other tips.

Without further adieu, here is my plan for this coming week:

Breakfast: everyone feeds themselves breakfast and I very rarely eat breakfast (I do intermittent fasting and I like to workout fasted in the morning – we can talk about that more if you’d like – this works really well for me for a lot of reasons.) Here is what is typically on the menu:

• Cheerios – I buy Honey Nut and Regular and mix them together. Yes, they eat these with regular whole milk, not almond milk or some other dairy free milk.
• Eggs – hard-boiled for my daughter, mini quiches for my son and husband. I started making these mini quiches on Saturday and freezing them for the week because my husband is not exactly zippy in the mornings. He would very leisurely make himself an omelet every morning. He used to just eat cereal, so at least that was an improvement. But it took FOREVER! I needed him out of the house so we could get started with our day and he could get to work sooner and therefore, get home sooner. He will eat three of these for breakfast with a few Cheerios on the side. My son does the opposite – two big bowls of Cheerios and one quiche.

Lunch: Husband always takes leftovers if there are any. I almost always cook enough for him to have at least one lunch afterward, but if we gobbled it all up, he takes the same thing the kids eat:

• lunch meat – I usually buy those “ham nuggets” at Whole Foods. They like them, they’re a good value for lunch meat and the meat is good quality, uncured, no hormones, etc. The only downside is that I have to slice it myself.
• fruit – whatever is in season. Favorites are clementines, apples, and pears.
• vegetables – they ALWAYS have to eat something green – this is usually just a pile of mixed salad greens or spinach. They also love baby carrots and those mini sweet bell peppers.
• some sort of chip – I like Kettle brand avocado oil chips. 
• Then of course they have some sort of dessert, usually chocolate. In my defense, if I bought it for them, it’s a good quality brand of dark chocolate. My daughter does earn ice cream through some of her school work. Hey, don’t judge. You gotta do what you gotta do to motivate them. If a little ice cream motivates her to actually try to spell words correctly, then so be it. 😃

Breakfast and lunch look just like this every single week. What about me you might ask. I am a wild card when it comes to lunch. Sometimes I skip it altogether (doing a longer fast). When I do eat, I have a few favorites:

• salad greens + 2 fried eggs (in ghee) + olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• bacon and egg salad (mayo or mashed avocado + hardboiled eggs + bacon)
• avocado – I buy the mashed avocado cups from Costco, it’s just avocado, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I will scoop this with carrots or sometimes plantain chips

Dinner plans for this week – One more note, what I plan for dinner is directly tied to what we have going on. Monday nights are free and Mondays are typically lower stress days as far as activities and my work goes, so I do a more time-consuming dinner on Monday. So if you follow my meal plan, you might need to mix up the days depending on what your week looks like.

Monday: Creamy Ranch Chicken and Mushrooms in the Instant Pot, with cauliflower rice and salad (this recipe is a new one I’m developing, but I will be videoing it so look for that over on my YouTube channel – assuming it’s a success). To prep for this recipe, I need to make a paleo version of cream of mushroom soup. That is also an experiment and I’ll be making that sometime this weekend. I’ll probably end up eating a bowl of it for lunch and freezing the rest. So I know this isn’t helpful because I can’t share this recipe. Consider substituting my Ground Beef Stroganoff, which is also good with cauliflower rice or mash and salad.

I got my inspiration for this recipe from a blog I read called Mix and Match Mama. This picture isn’t all that great (sorry Shay), but I thought it sounded good and totally Paleo-ify-able.

Tuesday: Primal Cheeseburger Soup This is basically a beef and vegetable soup. You can add the cheese or leave it out. I eat it without the cheese most of the time and my family will add it to the top of their bowl. This is an easy one for people to customize. Because this soup is so full of vegetables, you really don’t need anything else to make your meal complete.

Wednesday: Pork and Veggie Un-rolls – this is a tried and true favorite around here. It takes a little prep time with all the chopping, but you can easily do that head of time if that helps you. I almost always give myself an hour to prep dinner. When I was still in school, I would listen to a seminar while I cooked. Now I listen to a favorite podcast or sometimes music. Everyone has to get out and leave me alone and I really enjoy my time in the kitchen. So a recipe that takes a little more prep is not a burden to me, but I realize it may be for some of you. Maybe there is some way you can find to make it more enjoyable?

Thursday: Taco night! I make my beef and veggie taco filling*, roast some sweet potato cubes and then put out all the fixings: shredded cheddar, salsa, sour cream, guacamole and shredded lettuce. We make this like a taco bowl, sort of like nachos I guess, but instead of the chips, we use the roasted sweet potato. Oh! And top it with my secret sauce: homemade mayo + salsa. It makes this creamy, tangy sauce and it’s amazing!! With this, I don’t miss all the dairy my family is eating. *Alternatively, make my super simple taco filling: one pound of ground beef plus one link of fresh chorizo, brown this together than add in about a cup of your favorite salsa. Simmer until you’re ready to eat.

Friday: I try to make Friday night family fun night and that includes a kid-favorite dinner. We had gotten into a rut of eating those gluten free pizzas from Costco (I add toppings, of course), but in trying to keep it truly paleo, this week we’re having Meatza. This recipe is for sweet potato meatza, but since we will have just eaten sweet potatoes the night before, I’m going to just make a meat crust. All this means is smushing your meat into a flat crust in your baking dish. I usually use sausage, but you could use any ground meat you like. Then top with all your favorite toppings. Trust me, there is so much flavor if you use sausage and good veggies (I like onion, mushrooms, squash and peppers) that you will not miss the cheese if you choose to leave it off.

So there you have this week’s meal plan. The only thing missing this week is fish. I have a “prescription” from my doctor to eat salmon twice a week so I usually have a fish night, but we are trying to be very frugal right now due to all the start-up costs for Total Wellness Health Coaching so that means lots of ground beef and chicken. I may sneak some canned salmon into my lunches.

I sincerely hope you find this helpful. Please let me know if there is something I can do to make meal planning easier for you. If you say to write fewer extra words, I don’t know if I can do that. 😉 My only C in school came in the third grade. For conduct! For talking too much, of course.

If ever there was an oxymoron, Whole 30 Super Bowl Party is it! This happens to me every year – I start my Whole 30 right after my birthday, which is mid-January – and this puts me smack dab in the middle of my Whole 30 when Super Bowl time comes around.

The Super Bowl has been a big deal in my house for a long time because of the food. My kids talk about this meal all year long. This is our menu when I’m not doing Whole 30:

1. Meatballs with marinara (recipe in my book)
2. Mozzarella Sticks
3. Chicken Wings – both Teriyaki and Buffalo
4. Veggie Tray with homemade Ranch Dressing
5. Plantain chips with Queso Dip (recipe in my book)

I admit that my favorite food on that list is the mozzarella sticks. Since there is no dairy allowed on Whole 30, those are out, as is the queso dip. But all the rest are a-okay!

And it’s really a feast! There is no reason for any of us to feel deprived. Chicken wings, lots of veggies with ranch, meatballs! I think that’s a hearty meal. I will probably add a tray of cheese and crackers for my family (because that won’t tempt me, but I cannot refuse mozzarella sticks!).

Alternatively, if you don’t want an all appetizer meal, you could make a Chili feast. I have a brand new White Chicken Chili recipe that is great in the Instant Pot and a traditional tomato based chili. You could set out all sorts of toppings and let your family and guests dress up their bowl just how they like it.

P.S. Just in case you’re not super into football and have no idea when the big game is occurring, but you are into food and are always up for a party, the Super Bowl is being played on February 3rd at 6:30 PM this year. You’re welcome. 😊

P.P.S. You can bet I will be whipping up a batch of the Mozzarella Sticks as soon as I’ve reintroduced dairy to my diet!

It’s been over three years since I started this blog. I can hardly believe it. I remember sitting at my kitchen island writing the About Me page when my husband came up behind me and asked what I was doing. I had woken up that morning with such a burden on my heart to share my health story. I had suffered for such a long time simply because I did not know that diet and lifestyle changes made any difference in my health.

After living on the Paleo diet for a few years and experiencing the freedom that came with good health, I knew I had to share. That’s why I started this blog. That, plus the fact that I love to cook and I love to eat and I knew that if I could make food that would satisfy my own picky tastebuds, I could make food that needed to be shared. 

To be completely honest, this hasn’t always been easy. If I want to actually make some money with this website, I need to spend a lot of time on social media. I don’t want to do that for two reasons:

1. It doesn’t feel genuine to me. I don’t enjoy being on social media personally and every time I work on Facebook or Instagram, I feel like I’m not being true to myself. And

2. I don’t want my kids to see me spending my time that way. They are my biggest and most important audience. I know what social media is doing to the adolescents these days and I want to protect my kids from that as much as I am able. (For what’s it’s worth – I have a 12 and a 14 year old. Neither has a cell phone. Yet they have plenty of friends whom they see almost daily and they have the ability to look someone in the eye and have a conversation. So it is possible.)

All that to say, I haven’t put the time and effort into making this blog a business. I realize that if I were to spend a lot of time marketing myself on social media, I could have thousands of followers and friends in the internet world, which would translate into reaching more people with this message and contributing to my family budget.

Because all of that marketing and social media stuff (technical term) feels very icky (another technical term) to me, I sought out another avenue for sharing this information. That led me to the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. You’ve probably heard me talk about that a few times this past year. I’m finishing up my year-long health coach training at the end of this month and am so excited to begin coaching. My hope is that I will really be able to go deep with each and every client, addressing their concerns specifically, rather than throwing information out on the internet and hoping it strikes a chord with someone. Anyone.

I would be disingenuous if I didn’t also mention the financial aspect of this. Running the blog is actually pretty expensive. And those kids whom I’m trying to influence positively, will hopefully be heading off to college in a few short years. Even though my husband and I have been saving faithfully for that day since they were born, we will have a shortfall when the time comes. (Unless the colleges all of a sudden decide to charge a reasonable price, which I doubt is going to happen!) So my hope is that this new coaching gig will tick all the boxes:

• share my message and the knowledge I’ve acquired with more people
• help support my family financially

This blog isn’t going anywhere. I still have my messy, food-splattered recipe notebook by my side jotting down recipe ideas and tweaking ones I’ve been working on for a while. I will continue to post recipes for you as regularly as I can. I will continue to bring you educational content and updates on how my family is making all of this work day in, day out. BUT – you knew there had to be a but, right? I can’t promise any sort of regularity to my postings. I am really up to my eyeballs in coursework, studying for the international certification exam, coaching clients, setting up all the business aspects of this venture, in addition to my regular duties as wife, mom, teacher and friend. 

I so appreciate your support of this blog. Thank you for reading, for sharing the recipes, for commenting, for watching the associated YouTube videos. All of that stuff helps because when you watch, read or share, it helps others see this content and genuinely, that is my motivation. I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did.

If you’re in a place where you’re feeling stuck or maybe you just need a little motivation or accountability, you would be a good candidate for health coaching. I like to say, “A health coach can help you change when change is hard.” It’s really that simple. Except when it isn’t and we can go there too. 

For health coaching, you can reach out to me through email: elizabeth@totalwellnesshealthcoaching.com

phone: 919-622-5003

or through my website: totalwellnesshealthcoaching.com

The website is still under construction – that’s a lot of what has me up to my eyeballs right now! But feel free to pop over there and let me know what you think of my home page design. There is a pretty picture there with my logo and phone number, but no real content yet. For now, if you’re interested in coaching, just call, text or email and we’ll go from there.

But wait…there’s more! Just today I published a Keto Instant Pot recipe that is so easy and delicious – Spaghetti Squash Mac and Cheese! So see, I will still be publishing recipes and videos as regularly as I can. 

There are blogs I read that post every single day. I just can’t do that. But I do still care about you and I want you to be well. As always, I’m here for questions, suggestions, and comments. 

I wish you all well. Please check back often for new recipes and other fun stuff. 

P.S. I would be remiss if I did not mention Beautycounter. I am still working with them as a sales rep. It’s not my main gig by any means, but after a full year with the company, I can honestly say I have more respect for the company and more love for the products than ever. If you have yet to start cleaning up your personal care products, I’d love to talk with you about how Beautycounter can fit into that plan. The products are beautiful, clean and work well. I’ve had to put this side business a little further to the side for now while I get my health coaching business up and running, but it’s still an important part of my life. You can find my personal Beautycounter website here. They have a really great promotion going on right now. See below.

I hope your 2018 ended on a high note. And if last year was not all you hoped it would be, I pray your 2019 will be better.

Many people like to start the new year with some sort of detox or elimination diet. I find this interesting because I fully believe your body tells you what it needs – we just don’t always listen! Believe it or not, I often crave vegetables, especially after traveling, when I tend to eat fewer green things than normal. So the fact that many people crave a cleaner diet at the beginning of the year, simply indicates that your body has had enough of the over-indulgent foods of the holiday season (raise your hand if you ate too many sausage balls over Christmas 🤚).

Because January is birthday season in my house, we tend to start our elimination diets in February, but for those of you who want to clean house now, I have lots of resources for you.

My very favorite detox or elimination diet is the Whole 30. It’s a way to clean house, nutritionally speaking, and then slowly add back in what you’ve taken out and see if you note any correlations between specific foods or beverages and symptoms.

Many people report that they didn’t even realize how awful they were feeling until they started feeling so good.

And you get to eat yummy food like this…yes, this Chicken Pot Pie is Paleo and totally Whole 30 compliant.

The Whole 30 website gives you all the information you need to start the elimination diet. There is nothing magical about starting January 1st, so don’t worry if you’re not ready to start until the 15th or even later. Or join me in February. I’d love the company!

Back in the fall of 2016, I created a full month of Whole 30 meal plans AND I made a YouTube video of each and every dinner preparation. Once getting to my channel, simply type “Whole 30” into the YouTube search bar and you’ll find all my Whole 30 compliant recipe videos. Each video will have a link to the recipe writeup on the blog.

You can find each weekly meal plan at the following links:

Whole 30 week 1 Meal Plan 

Whole 30 week 2 Meal Plan

Whole 30 week 3 Meal Plan

Whole 30 week 4 Meal Plan

Whole 30 week 5 Meal Planh
Each weekly meal plan is a printable PDF like this:

(The pink links are recipes available on this website and the blue links are recipes that can be found in my e-book.)

I’ve been through this thing many times, some more successfully than others, so I can offer lots of support and guidance. Please reach out if you have questions.

And speaking of support and guidance…my health coaching business is now up and running. My website is still in the works, but I am legally able to coach you using functional medicine principles. If you’re interested in having a personal coach walk you through your Whole 30, please reach out. I’d love the opportunity! You can email me at

elizabeth@totalwellnesshealthcoaching.com

A health coach can help you achieve your health and wellness goals. A lot of people know what they need to do, they just lack the support or motivation to achieve their goals. Some people are so full of information, they don’t know where to start. A health coach can help with all those things. I’d really love to work with you!

Thanks for visiting my little corner of the interwebs. Your support and friendship mean more to me than you could know. I wish you all the best in 2019. Check back often for lots of new information and great recipes!