Carl's Pork and Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 15 oz can of Black Soy Beans
• 1 lb of Italian sausage
• 5 to 6 smoked ham hocks
• 1 to 2 oz of baby spinach
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 2 sticks of celery
• 2 sticks of anise/fennel (optional)
• fresh oregano and sage
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano Reggiano

The first step is to make Stock from the ham hocks. You can do this in a pressure cooker. Simply put them in the cooker and add water to the fill line, and the garlic. Add the tomato sauce and herbs. Run the cooker on high (or the meat setting) for 2 1-hour cycles. Transfer to a soup pot.

Chop the celery (and optionally the fennel) into small pieces and saute in a fry pan with 2 tbsp olive oil.

Crumble and saute' the sausage in the same frying pan over medium-low heat until brown and crispy bits form on the edges.

Add the veggies and sausage to the stock along with the beans.

Just before serving, add a small handful of baby spinach to a hot bowl of soup. The spinach will cook in the soup at the table yet still retains a fresh flavor. Serve with the parm on the side for sprinkling.

Enjoy!

No BS Weight Loss Plan for Obese People

This is my before and after picture, and I'm still not done.

I have nothing to sell you. I don't take money from companies that sell diet plans, drugs, food, bars, etc. Nothing. I'm just a 49 year-old American guy who had type 2 diabetes, who weighed 366 pounds, did some research, changed his diet, and ended up at 290 pounds with no more type 2 diabetes, no more medications.

Best of all, I ate fat. Lots of it. In fact, I ate more delicious food while losing weight than I ever did before. Everything I did is backed up by science. If you like, you can peruse the links to the numerous studies to back up my actions. But most people just want to be told what to do. They want a plan they can stick to that is guaranteed to work. This blog post is an attempt at that.

It's called the ketogenic diet. You eat more fat, no carbs, and moderate amounts of protein. Think of it like the Atkins diet, except it's been tweaked based on the science of the day. Many real studies have been done with humans since Atkins died in the 90s, and now we know what to expect. We know how to optimize the low-carb high-fat diet.

If you want to learn (in 8 minutes) why we get fat, watch this YouTube video. It's a perfect explanation.

You should know that I'm not a doctor. I can't give you medical advice. I can't tell you to stop taking medication. Don't do that. Talk to your doctor. Ask him/her if it's ok for you to go on a ketogenic diet. I did, and my doctor said yes. I was lucky. Some doctors don't know about low-carb high-fat and fear it. In that case you might want to follow the science, such as this 2014 study that reviewed 76 observational and randomized controlled studies with more than 650,000 participants. It found that those with a high saturated fat intake did not have an increased risk of heart disease. Kinda hard to argue with that one.

The benefits of a ketogenic diet are numerous, starting with prevention and reversal of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, cancer, dementia, arthritis, MS, and more. It makes sense. As humans we have spent 99.9% of our existence eating mostly animals and some plants. In the last 100 years we've changed our diet to mostly fake food. Getting rid of it reverses the "diseases of civilization." The problem is, people think they have to suffer to lose weight and get healthy. Not true. I'm living proof.

If you really don't want to expend any effort at all, have the cash to eat out, and just want to see immediate results, here's a no-fail one-week plan for you.

First, buy the following from Amazon.com (I get no commissions or money for this):

• A loaf of Mahler's low-carb bread
• One or two bags of Cello Cheese Whisps (okay, several bags. These are awesome)
• A bottle of no sugar added ketchup (if you like ketchup)
• A bottle of Bragg's apple cider vinegar
• A jar of coconut oil

Put the bread in the freezer and keep the cheese whisps handy for snacking.

Breakfast

Every morning, toast up 2 slices of Mahler's bread. Slather them with butter. Wrap them in a paper towel and go to McDonald's drive thru. Get 2 of any breakfast bagels you like with extra cheese. (bacon, egg and cheese; sausage, egg, and cheese; steak, egg and cheese). Mix it up. Replace the bagel with your toast - put the meat and eggs from both bagels between your toast - and enjoy. If that seems like too much, just get one bagel. Also, you can get yourself a coffee or tea. Heavy cream is okay. No sugar. Sugar substitutes will probably be okay, but your best bet is to stay away from them. Definitely not milk. Half and Half is fine. No potatoes. No pancakes, no other starches or sugars. That's it. You'll be full.

Lunch

For a drink, make yourself a to-go bottle of water or seltzer with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. It's refreshing, and has been shown to lower insulin levels.

For lunch, you can do the same trick. Toast up some low-carb bread, add mayo and no-sugar-added ketchup if you like. Head to your favorite fast food place and order a burger or two. Extra cheese. Lettuce, mayo, tomato, pickles, mushrooms, bacon, and mustard are all okay. Ask for no ketchup. Also, avoid onions. If you like the flavor of onions, sprinkle a little onion powder on your toast after you add the ketchup and/or mayo. If you're really hungry, stock up on the burgers. More is okay, as long as you can fit it in your mouth. No fries or sugar of any kind, but extra bacon and cheese, please!

Dinner

For dinner, take yourself out to a restaurant. Try to be done eating by 7PM and eat nothing else for the rest of the night. Every restaurant offers a salad. Just ask for no croutons, and don't get "sweet" dressings like thousand island or French. I like blue cheese, personally.  Go ahead and have a glass of wine. For reds, pinot noir is a good choice. For whites, pinot grigio. If you want to have hard alcohol, that's fine. Just have one, and don't mix in anything with sugar: bourbon on the rocks, vodka and lime, or rum and diet coke.

Here are some of your dinner options:

Buffalo Wings. At Chili's you can get "wings over buffalo" or "smoked wings" without sauce.

Steak. Most restaurants have steak on the menu. Get the fattier cuts: prime rib, ribeye, etc. Avoid the lean cuts like filet mignon. Ask for extra butter to melt over it. If you are hungry, get a big one. No potatoes, though. Just get the steak and perhaps a side veggie like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or sauteed spinach.

Salmon. What could be better than a nice salmon filet or steak swimming in olive oil or butter, with a little lemon wedge, maybe a little sauce on the side with sour cream, dill, and garlic. mmmmm...

Shrimp Scampi. Again. shrimp swimming in butter and garlic. Get a double-order! Just pass on the pasta.

Pork Chops, Lamb Shank, Beef Short Ribs... these are all good choices. Just make sure you tell them no bread, no potatoes, no carbs. Most restaurants are accommodating. Remember, more fat! Eat all of the fat off your meat. Don't cut it away.

The Next Morning

The next morning, wake up and make yourself some coffee. Put 2 mugfulls (about 4 cups) in a blender with a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil. Add a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, or any other flavoring you want and whiz it all together. Enjoy. The coconut oil will quell your hunger, whatever is left of it, and you should be able to go a long time without getting hungry.

If you are not hungry at lunch time, skip it. No worries. Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. If that means coconut coffee in the morning and a meal at 3PM so be it. Once you break free of carb addiction you will be able to hear the signals that your body gives you about hunger and satiety. Listen to them. You can trust them.

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Do this for a week. You will feel great. You will have lost weight. You will have more energy. You will have more mental acuity.  You will begin to break your carb addiction. You may have flu-like symptoms for a couple days. You may even have a rash. That is normal. Tough it out. On the other side is bliss like you've never known before.

If you want to learn more about the science behind the ketogenic diet, start with this list of resources. Also, listen to my podcast - 2 Keto Dudes - which chronicles my journey through keto-land as well as that of my co-host Richard Morris, who has also completely reversed type 2 diabetes and fatty liver, and after 2 years on the ketogenic diet has lost 70 pounds and has no sign of heart disease. Oh yeah, I said a dirty word. You'll WANT to exercise after a while. It will just happen. Oh, then after 6 or 8 weeks you actually might start fasting. Yeah - I know! It's crazy to think of, but that's what your body wants to do. But, that's down the road.

How I Broke Through a Stall and Lost 10 Pounds

Disclaimer: Jason Fung says children should not fast. Richard Morris and I do not recommend fasting until you are fat adapted, or at least have been following a LCHF diet for a couple weeks. Before starting any change in diet, you should get a blood profile done and discuss it with your doctor.

If you try to put my eating patterns in a box it will be difficult. Is it EF? IF? Some of each? Where does one end and the other begin? That seems like a lot of brain applied to what just came naturally for me. So, in that spirit, this is what I did, what I ate, and here the results.

It should be noted that I had been hovering between 297 and 302 for a month and a half. I've been eating only ketogenic food. This was your classic long stall. I have taken a cue from Tom Seest to embrace my stalls. Rather than seeing it as failure of my body to do what it needs to do, I was patient, enjoyed the spoils of my current successes, and ate my favorite keto foods, which make me very happy. I also did a couple fasts in the last month and half, but they were short - 66 hours or so. It was only after talking to Jason Fung that I decided to do an "open-ended" fast. I also learned from him that there are a million ways to do it, and not to be dogmatic about it. That turned out to be REALLY GOOD ADVICE, as you can see.

I do not recommend that anyone here do what I did. Rather, I found something that worked for me. For example, others here have tried adding a little alcohol 6 hours after eating - and the results were mixed. I encourage you to find your own path.

Saturday, August 6
300 pounds. I had lunch at Longhorn Steak House in Waterford at around 1:30. I had a 22 oz prime rib au jus and horseradish sauce; and a big garden salad with olive oil and blue cheese dressing. In the evening I had a glass or two of Pinot Noir.

Sunday, August 7
298 pounds. Bulletproof coffee with only 1 tbsp of coconut oil. I drank about a liter (I think) of keto-ade. This is water, a little apple cider vinegar, some xylitol, grape flavoring, lite salt, and magnesium citrate. In the late afternoon I had a couple adapt bars. In the evening I had a couple glasses of bourbon on ice.

Monday, August 8
296 pounds. Bulletproof coffee with 1 tbsp of coconut oil. More keto ade. 3 or 4 adapt bars in the afternoon. Copious amounts of Pinot Noir (4 glasses) in the evening. My friend, Arthur, came over to chat and brought home-made pork sausage. I ate a whole sausage, and then later (around midnight) I had some more with cheddar cheese, some cheese-ball dip (cream cheese, shredded cheddar, and ranch dressing mix) on cucumber slices. Took a shot of apple cider vinegar (ACV) before bed.

Tuesday, August 9
294 pounds. Bulletproof coffee with 1 tbsp of coconut oil. Keto ade mid morning. Adapt bar at 1PM. Keto ade at 3PM. Bourbon at 7pm, and again at 8pm. At 8:30 had a sausage link and several cheese-ball cheese on cucumber slices, followed by a few more bourbons on ice. Shot of ACV before bed.

Wednesday, August 10
294 pounds. Had a bout of gastric distress at about 4AM. I consider what I’ve done so far a 3 day fast, and now (6 pounds down) I’m starting again. Woke up at 10:15. Had a cup of keto coffee, this time with a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil, just to get things started. Had a bite of guacamole (tasting it before serving) and a small bite of ground beef around 5:30 PM. Had 4 glasses of Pinot Noir after 8PM. Had virtually no hunger all day. It was there a little bit, but was easy to ignore.

Thursday, August 11
290 pounds! Started the day with keto coffee (2 tbsp CO) at 8AM. Drank keto ade. No hunger. Amazing clarity. Around 6:30 PM I had 4 garlic/parm chicken wings and several bites of Caesar salad, and a glass of Pinot Noir. Had a couple bourbons between 8 and 10pm. Finished the evening with 1 tbsp of ACV in a glass of seltzer water.

Friday, August 12
290 pounds. Started the day at 7:15 AM with keto coffee (1 tbsp CO). Around 10 I decided I would eat a normal IF lunch today. At 10:15 AM I had a small handful of almonds, a small salad with BCD (blue cheese dressing), and a couple cucumber slices with a schmear of cheese-ball cheese. At 11:30 I had 10 chicken wings and half a steak salad. I had no further keto-ade or alcohol for the rest of the day and evening. I did expend quite a few calories playing a gig with the band. The work started at 4PM and ended at 3AM. No alcohol, but I did take a bit of prime rib fat from my friends’ plate to show him that it could be done!! That was around 9 PM.

Saturday, August 13
290 pounds. I’m taking this as a sign that it’s time to eat. I am not hungry as of noon, however, and will continue to fast until I am hungry.

Coconut Flour Cheddar Drop Biscuits

These biscuits were floating around in our Facebook Group and I had to share.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup coconut oil or butter, melted
• 1/3 cup sifted coconut flour
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar, shredded

Method

Blend together eggs, coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in cheese. Drop batter by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. For a cheesier biscuit increase cheese to 3/4 of a cup.

Keto Beef Stew

This beef stew recipe is an adaptation of the Cook's Illustrated Best Beef Stew recipe, which gave me the secret weapon: anchovies! Using a few chopped up anchovies in your beef stew to bring out the "meatiness" or the glutimates in your stew. You might think that it will taste fishy, but no. It just tastes beefy and meaty. Give it a try!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 pound beef chuck roast
• 4 ounces salt pork rinsed of excess salt
• 4 tablespoons onion powder
• 2 garlic cloves crushed
• 4 anchovy filets, chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cups red wine
• 2 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon xanthan gum

Method:

Crush the garlic and combine with tomato paste and anchovies. Chop anchovies finely, and add to the paste and garlic mixture. Set aside.

Heat 2 of the three teaspoons of olive oil - over medium heat - in the bottom of a stew pot. Add half of the meat and brown for about 8 minutes. Remove from the pot, and add the second half of the meat. Brown it for about 8 minutes. Return the first half to the pot. Mix in the tomato paste mixture and stir until the meat is completely coated. Add the wine and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock, salt pork, herbs, bay leaf, and simmer for at least 3 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. To thicken, remove from heat and let cool down for about an hour. Combine the xanthan gum and remaining 1 tbsp of oil, and stir into the stew until thick. If it doesn't thicken sufficently, add more xanthan gum/olive oil 1 tsp at a time until thick. Return the stew to low heat and simmer as long as necessary to come back to eating temperature. Enjoy!