Saturday, October 17, 2015

Keto Diet Freezer Meals



Are you a busy dancer, mom of a dancing daughter/son - or just crazy busy?

Here's a Kindle book with recipes you can make ahead of time and freeze.

What a handy book! This is not the only Kindle edition of handy meals to grab from the freezer but it is written by a registered and licensed dietician, Skye Howard.

There are incredible advantages to making ketogenic meals this way:

  • avoid unhealthy fats from frozen processed foods
  • avoid artificial flavors and colors in frozen meals
  • avoid the lack of nutrition in frozen packaged meals and snacks

If you still have reservations about eating fats, check out my Kindle book Facts About Saturated Fats.

Don't be hungry!

Lose weight safely! Enjoy your own choices of:

  • healthy foods 
  • flavors and seasonings
  • grass fed beef
  • organically fed chicken and pork
  • wild caught cold water fish providing omega 3 oils
  • grass fed dairy products, possibly raw
  • organic vegetables

Grass fed products, organic products and wild caught fish contribute greatly to your hormone balance and how that affects weight gain. You can read more about that in my post  about teen weight gain and hormone imbalance. 

And here is your book about keto diet freezer meals

keto diet freezer recipes







Monday, October 12, 2015

Keto Diet Meals


A  keto diet is a diet where the goal is to get into a fat-burning mode.

A  keto diet is not a deprivation or low calorie diet.


Keto Clarity

A  keto or ketogenic meal plan is like a low-carb high fat diet. Like the Dr. Atkins diet.

Although some people may find it difficult or sometimes anti-social it is a diet on which you will not go hungry.

So what is a keto diet meal? A meal excluding:

  • bread
  • crackers
  • sugar
  • grains (all)
  • potatoes
  • pastas (grains)

So a keto diet breakfast may be:

1 or 2 boiled, poached, scrambled eggs/omelet
with sour cream, butter, cooked in coconut oil
with bacon or sausage and cheese

Buying bacon smoked with no sugar is a challenge. Sour cream from grass fed cows or cows not fed the Rbgh (recombinant beef growth hormone) is recommended. Sausage from small farm raised pork is preferred too. Why?

All those GMO fed meat foods and hormone fed animals aren't good for you. And you will gain weight if you eat them, most of you.

A keto diet lunch could be:

  • a lettuce wrap with meat, cheese or peanut butter
  • a piece of chicken, turkey, beef (no cold cuts)
  • chopped veggies with a sour cream/avocado/cheese dip (home made)
  • lettuce wrapped peanut/almond butter "sandwiches", a few
  • a drive-through burger/cheese burger/'fishwich' wrapped in lettuce -
  • a tub of egg or tuna or salmon salad

A keto diet dinner could be:

  • meat/chicken/fish/eggs
  • as many green veggies as you like with butter, olive oil or sour cream
  • salad - greens including avocado

You won't be hungry with these meals.

Keto snacks can include walnuts, peanuts, and chopped veggies with tahini or nut butters.

Learn more about keto diet meals.

Here are some tips for low carb breakfasts:







D. Buxton is a writing partner with Vone Deporter, of The Sedona Series, about a surfer girl in pointe shoes.

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Sunday, October 11, 2015

Ketosis Diet Plan - Women

This page contains amazon affiliate marketing links. We may get paid a commission on the sale of a product or service recommended here. This does not change your price, you pay what Amazon advertises.

Is a ketosis diet plan good for women - or anyone?


Ketosis, or keto diets remain popular right now and a few supplements are on the market.

Very expensive, these mostly MLM marketed formulas are not necessary to maintain ketosis and lose weight.

Yes, the state of fat-burning, or ketosis is attainable by a specific diet plan. And this plan has been around for decades.

The medical doctors Eades and Eades published The Protein Power Life Plan in 2001.

Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution: The High Calorie Way to Stay Thin Forever was published in 1972.

Now the buzz word is ketosis, a weight loss diet plan. 

It is also good for reducing inflammation and has been noted to reduced the progress of cancer. Could that be? Cancer is a condition brought on by inflammation so that makes sense to me.

A low carb high fat menu plan which includes plenty of green foods both raw and cooked, is an anti-inflammatory diet (for most, if you don't have vegetable allergies or a high response to lectins).

Carbohydrates from foods made with grains, or starchy vegetables promote inflammation, leading to pain. ...Sore joints, aching muscles - either mild, or for some, crippling.

A keto diet for weight loss meal plan simply excludes the starchy foods like bread, buns, crackers, grains, including pastas, and potatoes. Other root vegetables like carrots, beets,  and parsnips are  sugary too, and can be kept to a minimum.

For best results, fruit too, is excluded.

Keto Diet For Weight Loss Beginners


If you're curious about ketosis and how it can keep you thin and healthy, I suggest that you gain information with this book, Keto Clarity by by Eric Westman MD and Jimmy Moore. It is the leading best seller book on amazon on the subject, as I write today.

Keto Clarity

There are other books to choose from as well. The customer reviews on Keto Clarity reflect its usefulness and...clarity.

I first wrote about fat-burning ketosis on the topic of Intermittent Fasting in Effortless Healing by Dr. Joseph Mercola.

(Kaiser Permanente, an HMO insurance company, is now promoting Intermittent Fasting as a healthy eating plan.)

How Long Do You Need To Do Keto To Lose Weight?

This varies from person to person, and here is why.

When you eat carbohydrates in their many forms, they are changed to sugar in your gut and pass into your blood to be burned off as energy.

What you don't burn off is stored in your liver and muscles as glycogen.

When you begin to consume between 20-50 mg. of carbs a day (a Keto diet) you won't get into ketosis until all that glycogen is used up. 

Therefore, folks who have been eating any form of sugars and storing glycogen, will take longer to get into the state of fat burning ketosis.

Another factor is people who have drifted into metabolic syndrome over the years(difficulty in burning fuels, also referred to as slow metabolism) will take longer.

Metabolic syndrome is a pre-diabetic state. There are multiple benefits to back-peddling out of this:

  • Weight loss
  • Decrease inflammation in joints, muscles, gut, brain and all soft tissues
  • In turn, decrease joint pain, IBS pain and muscle pain
  • Gradually speeding up your metabolism
  • Generate more energy making daily life and exercising more enjoyable
  • In turn, building muscle mass, strength and mobility

See my article Are Ballet Workouts More Effective? for more about strength and mobility.

Are Keto Diet Weight Loss Results Healthy?


The keto diet does not restrict fats.

Fats support your brain, skin, joints and muscles. Fats are anti-inflammatory.

That's only if you choose the right fats to eat:


  • Grass fed meats like pasture fed beef
  • Butter from grass fed cows
  • Healthy seed oils like flax seed oil, avocado seed oil, true olive oil, walnut oil - seeds
Depending on your age and overall health, you have a better chance of maintaining skin quality (avoiding wrinkles), mental clarity, and exercise enjoyment (less pain) if you forego the low fat diet.


There is much more about this topic in the guide book Facts About Saturated Fats.



Keto Diet For Weight Loss Recipes 

I write more about this in my article Keto Diet Meals.


For the busy person get meals made for you   - see Keto Diet Freezer Meals, to help you with your weight loss goals.

I want to be clear that I may get a small advertising fee from purchases you make on Amazon, if you link from any of the links this article. (usually around 2-3%). This helps with the costs of publishing on line. It does not affect your price.

Have you tried a keto diet for weight loss? Or for your health in general? Please do share how you liked it and how it made you feel better. We can all learn from each other.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Best Barre Workout DVD

Best Barre Workout DVD

"Barre Nouvelle's owner and creator, Deborah Thompson is a former National Ballet of Canada dancer and veteran fitness instructor. Deborah is also an international trainer of the original Lotte Berk Technique trained under Lotte Berk's daughter, Esther Fairfax."

http://amzn.to/2f4KXnj


(Above from the website Barre Nouvelle.) I haven't experienced it myself but I'm quite sure it's something I need. 

It is owned and has been created by Deborah Thompson, whom I knew as Debbie Todd back in her National Ballet School of Canada/Company days. The studio is located in Etobicoke, Ontario.

When I went on Face Book a few days ago I was very happy to see a message from her with a link to what she is now teaching. 

I found a great youtube ballet barre workout to recommend after finding the following:


And I think I could do this! And that means almost any retired ballet dancer can! 

I'll never recover the strength I used to have in my hamstrings, gluts and Quadratus Lumborum back muscles. But I do what I can. 

Being retired from ballet isn't the easiest lifestyle. Coordinating work time and workout time can be difficult. 

If you can't visit Barre Nouvelle here's a complete set of Lotte Burk DVD's to learn your workouts with. 

There are single Lotte Burk DVD's to choose from as well.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

World Ballet Day Live!

Company class at The National Ballet of Canada taught by Rex Harrington just finished. On to interviews!

This live event will go on all day!

Soon we'll see a full dress rehearsal for Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale.

You can see a schedule of the companies and programs here.

Right now Heather Ogden is interviewing Evan McKee - so I'm off to listen!

This live presentation is broadcast from the Place Des Arts in Montreal.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Get Better Hormone Balance With Water

 Can doing laundry with plain water help with hormonal balance?


I have written about hormone balance and how crucial it is to avoid weight gain.

Today I heard a lengthy explanation about using a magnetic laundry system instead of petroleum based detergents.

I have heard about this for a long time - but this is not the laundry balls I thought it was. It is a magnet system. I'm tempted to try it.

  • no estrogen mimickers in the laundry (rubs off into skin)
  • no chemicals
  • prolongs fabric life
  • saves water (don't need rinse cycle)

The prime interest for me is the non-toxic factor. Petroleum products are estrogen mimickers. They are the base for detergents. Detergents also contain formaldehyde which stinks.

So heavy perfumes are used to cover that up. Called phthalates. Click here if you'd like to read details about that.

Hormone health is crucial to healthy weight and happiness too. Hormonal imbalance leads to anxiety, depression, medications (that often in turn increase weight) and general misery.

The MLS Magnetic Laundry System may be a component of the various things a person/household can do to be healthier. I look forward to using it!

MLS laundry system green save money save water

See the amazon reviews MLS magnetic laundry system.


Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Hip Stretching Exercises - Flexibility!


Hip stretching exercises are important for flexibility and strength.


The reason these muscles, which connect the thighs to the pelvis and spine, need to be exercised and conditioned with lengthening is that your general posture is balanced and stabilized by them.

The Hip Flexors can shorten and lose elasticity if you sit on a chair for several hours a day, or spend many hours driving.

The Gluteus and Piriformis muscles (your butt muscles) can retain chronic tension if not worked out and stretched.

Tight hip muscles lead to loss of balance, tense low back and low back pain, and sore hips that further decrease your desire to stay moving.

The Essentrics Flexibility Workout For Athletes conditions the whole body. This is important because --everything is connected to everything else.The workout emphasizes the lower body yet includes upper exercises.

If you are a beginner I recommend Classical Stretch workouts. The one pictured below shows Miranda Esmonde White stretching the Hip Flexor muscle. 

hip stretching exercises flexibility

This deep lunge type of stretch can be done after walking, jogging, or any routine workout. Always be well warmed up before you do stretches! You can do stretches halfway through a walk or run, which for some makes the exercise more comfortable.

Here is a detailed description of an exercise that stretches hip flexors.
Scroll down to the last quarter of the blog post - you'll see it!

More Classical Stretch workouts are reviewed at Muscle Stretching Exercises.

I hope these recommendations help with your hip stretching exercises/flexibility!