Podcast Episode #191: Low Carb Problems, Sleep Deprivation, Bone Injuries, & Thunder Thighs

Topics:
1.  What’s new for you from Diane & Liz [1:18]
Listener Questions:
2. Tips for sleep deprivation with a newborn [6:28]
3. Low carb paleo and trouble breathing [27:07]
4. Pasture raised beef in Florida [33:17]
5. Speeding recovery time in bone healing [37:38]
6. Liz’s BMB tip of the week: fat thighs [41:33]

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Links:

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Liz Wolfe: Hey everyone! Welcome to this episode of the Balanced Bites podcast. It should be 190, am I right about that, Diane?

Diane Sanfilippo: I think so.

Liz Wolfe: I think so. So, welcome. It’s me, Liz. I’m back for another episode. I’m still being really quiet because I don’t want to wake my sleeping baby.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Well, I’m glad to have you, even if you’re a little quiet.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, I’m just so glad to be here. {laughing}

1. What’s new for you from Diane & Liz [1:18]

Diane Sanfilippo: So what’s new with you since last we recorded? {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Oh gosh. So much has happened in 30 seconds. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Five minutes. What’s new with me? Well, nothing really. We’re getting 15 eggs a day from our chickens and ducks, it’s pretty spectacular. So we’re completely overloaded with that. And I’m still just enjoying some quiet time with my family. Still technically on leave. I’m not sure when I’ll go full steam; I might not ever go full steam back into what I was doing before. But basically I think I’ll come back, focus on the podcast and Baby Making and Beyond and a couple of other things, and that will be it.

Diane Sanfilippo: Sounds good to me.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Being a mom is crazy. I can’t believe I’m a mother.

Diane Sanfilippo: As long as I get to talk to you, then I’ll be fine.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Because really, that’s all that matters.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, you’re good. I’m not planning on changing my number or anything.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: We should be fine. So what’s going on with you?

Diane Sanfilippo: Not too much. I think, I’m trying to see. I’m not exactly sure of dates, I’ve mentioned this on a few previous episodes, but I’m guessing that this won’t be live until at least this episode airs, so I’m just not sure. But if you’ve been listening and interesting in becoming a 21DSD coach, so it’s the 21-Day Sugar Detox coaches certified program. Check out the Facebook group. We will be opening enrollment at some point soon.

Enrollment is going to be limited; I’m not exactly sure the number that we’ll limit it to yet. I’ll have to kind of see what my team thinks. We just need to make sure we can support everyone who comes in and enrolls through the program and then goes ahead through and takes the test and all that good stuff. So I’m limiting it for that reason because we obviously want to make sure we’re supporting everybody to the fullest. So that’s kind of exciting.

It’s definitely been a big project for the last, I don’t know, months, and months, and months for my time. So we’re excited about it. It’s been going really great with the existing coaches. We had a group of about 100 to 130 beta coaches, and they’ve been doing great, and running groups, and getting great feedback, and it’s been awesome. So I’m excited about that.

Liz Wolfe: Very good.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: So do we have any, I don’t even remember how to do this podcast, man. What are we supposed to talk about now?

Diane Sanfilippo: Maybe we should hear from our sponsors. Were we supposed to do that before?

Liz Wolfe: Oh yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think we should hear from our sponsors.

Liz Wolfe: Let’s hear from our sponsors.

Diane Sanfilippo: We have a brand new sponsor who I’m super excited about. Joining us this month is Tin Star Foods Ghee. As any of you who have been following me on social media know, I’m a huge fan of the product. I don’t generally talk a lot about products that I’m not a big fan of, so I wanted to invite Tin Star to come on and be a sponsor. I’m really excited to introduce those of you who haven’t heard of it yet to this ghee.

For those of you who aren’t sure what ghee is, it’s clarified butter, so if you’re sensitive to dairy proteins, it’s a really good option. For people who are highly, highly allergic, it maybe for you, it maybe not. I know that Tin Star Ghee is certified as casein free as well as lactose free, but there are some folks who will always be sensitive. So if you’re a little bit borderline and you feel like you can handle a tiny bit, which that’s where I am at, I would definitely recommend it. I definitely don’t do well with butter, and the Tin Star Ghee is fantastic for me. Ghee has been clarified, so the dairy proteins are gone, and I have no problems with it whatsoever. It tastes fantastic, and it’s a very healthy cooking fat. It’s my number one go-to choice for cooking.

So if you’re looking for an alternative to something like coconut oil or other animal fats that have different types of flavors, ghee is a fantastic choice. I just used it this morning to scramble my eggs, and it’s one that I highly recommend. The flavor and texture of Tin Star Foods ghee is fantastic. I absolutely love Hima, who is the owner of the company. She is just a really hard working gal getting her company off the ground, and I love supporting her. So I’m excited to have them join us as a sponsor, so welcome Tin Star Foods Ghee.

You can save 15% off any ghee in your order from http://www.primalfoodpantry.com/, that’s the website. So anything that you add to the cart that is a ghee product, she’ll get 15% off for you there. The code is BALANCEDBITES, so check them out. http://www.primalfoodpantry.com/

Diane Sanfilippo: Ok. Well..

Liz Wolfe: I’m so profesh.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Let’s see, I think we basically have time for questions today. I don’t have a ton of what’s new out there, because unfortunately we’re not actually recording these multiple weeks apart, so I don’t know what’s going on in the Paleosphere, so maybe we’ll just jump into some questions.

Liz Wolfe: I’m sure everyone’s just floating on a PaleoFx cloud and all that.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s right.

Liz Wolfe: So everybody just enjoy that. Alright, so we’ll answer some questions. I’ll do my best, but my big role today is as a reader, I think. Well, maybe not so much on this first one.

Diane Sanfilippo: No, there’s a couple that are right up your alley there.

2. Tips for sleep deprivation with a newborn [6:28]

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Alright, first question is from Kate. Tips for sleep deprivation with a newborn. Oh my. “I was wondering if you had any tips for dealing with sleep deprivation with a newborn. I get maybe 4 hours of sleep broken into 3 chunks. I try to nap when I can during the day, but with an older child this is usually only an hour, max. I’m nursing and craving and eating all of the carbs. Any advice?”

She’s low FODMAP diet to keep years of SIBO in remission. She eats gluten free grains with one meal like rice, quinoa, or millet, and no dairy. Alright, I have to say this is basically what our sleep is, or what my sleep is like right now. Oh my gosh, little tangent here. Remember how I told you, off the air, that my boobs can tell when the baby is awake?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: They can totally tell. It’s so crazy.

Diane Sanfilippo: Is she awake right now?

Liz Wolfe: She might be. It’s ok. Husband will let me know if I need to plug her in.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Ok, so this is actually, there are a lot of people that would really envy 4 hours of sleep broken into 3 chunks. I know at the beginning I was definitely not in that space. That’s where we are now, so it’s basically every 4 hours, baby has to be fed and boobs have to be drained. Which means once, and Diane this is going to blow your mind. When you’re supposed to nurse a baby every 3-4 hours, you actually restart the time from the beginning of the last time you nurse. So if it takes a half an hour, and then after that..

Diane Sanfilippo: That is rough.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. So basically Kate is probably getting 3 hours on those 4 hours. Who knows, depends on the whole nursing situation.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think she’s saying she’s getting a total of 4 hours. Or do you think…

Liz Wolfe: That’s phenomenal.

Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t think she’s getting 4 hours, 4 hours, 4 hours, because that would be a lot. But it would be broken up.

Liz Wolfe: It’s not a lot when you wake up in the middle of all of it.

Diane Sanfilippo: But I don’t know, it seems like she was saying she’s only getting 4 hours total. Maybe not.

Liz Wolfe: Oooohh. Well, 4 hours total broken into 3 chunks. Yeah, now I’m wondering. Because basically where we’re at right now is 4 hour chunks times 3. So it’s like we go to bed, in 4 hours. That’s stretching it, too. We probably need to nurse a little bit more towards 3.5 hours. Now, obviously in the first two weeks, and I don’t know how old this baby is, whether it’s in the first two weeks, which is basically just that place where you have to get through it and feed the baby every 2, 2.5 hours at night.

If you’re after that 2 week place, if you’re getting towards 4 weeks, 6 weeks, you’re probably able to stretch it out to 3, 4 hours. If that’s the case, you’re like 4 hours, nurse, 4 hours, nurse, 4 hours, then that’s beautiful and you’re just going to have to press on that way. Get as much vitamin C as you can from food.

I think this is where when you can’t do anything about your sleep, and you can’t do anything about your stress, that’s where you really do lean on the food, making sure you’re getting plenty of vitamin C, a good amount of iron, getting your B vitamins, getting magnesium, all of those things that can be depleted easily by stress. So that’s what I would really say for Kate. Napping during the day when you can.

Being that this is my first, I really have no excuse except for the Balanced Bites podcast to not be napping when my baby is napping.

Diane Sanfilippo: Excuse me?

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Because that’s where you really make up time.

Diane Sanfilippo: This is the first time I’ve ever bothered you.

Liz Wolfe: I know it. But of course, with an older child, I know that’s got to be really hard. The cravings are going to be, that’s just what happens. So if you’re eating all the carbs, and they’re healthy carbs, I really wouldn’t worry about it. Because you need that to produce adequate breast milk, and it’s really not a bad thing to make sure you’re getting carbs, as long as you’re getting good fat and good protein as well.

I always kind of tell myself that I can eat whatever I want after I’ve gotten the good stuff in. I want a lot of carbs right now, for sure, being a nursing mom and getting adjusted to that relationship. But I do make sure that the carbs always come with some good protein and some good fat. Just like you can’t spoil a baby during this time, you really can’t overdo it on healthy food, whether we’re talking carbs, or fat, or what have you.

So now I’m a little confused to whether she’s only sleeping 4 hours a night, although I would doubt that just because newborns tend to sleep so much. They sleep at weird times, but I think at least during the night there’s probably more than 4 hours going on. But I don’t know. I’ve been really , I don’t know if I want to say lucky because we’ve had our difficulties, but we’ve had pretty good night sleep so far with our daughter. Oh that’s so weird to say. That’s so weird to say!

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: My daughter sleeps fairly well during the night. So I just don’t know. That’s pretty much the best I can do. Kate, if you want to pop into the blog post episode, blog post for this episode, at RealFoodLiz.com, and maybe clarify what’s going on with that sleep there, whether it’s 4 hours total or 4 hours times three, I can maybe be a little bit more specific. {clicks tongue}. That’s what I got.

Diane Sanfilippo: Alrighty.

Liz Wolfe: And she’s also not doing dairy or really eating anything that I would be concerned with possibly screwing up the baby’s sleep. If the baby is really fussy and you’re not getting sleep because the baby is not sleeping because the baby is uncomfortable, there are a couple of things that you can do. There’s a fennel and catnip supplement that just a little drop of it, every once in a while. Use it sparingly, but a little drop of it can really help tummy troubles. I wouldn’t do it all the time but if you’re really, really desperate you could try that. And that’s good for babies, probably 4 weeks and up.

Diane Sanfilippo: Awesome. Next question?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I’m still learning, though. I’m new at this. It was hard the first couple of weeks. And you’ll break down too. I’ve had some crying jags where I was like, {sobbing} I don’t know what’s wrong!

Diane Sanfilippo: Put her back in there!

Liz Wolfe: And it’s just the sleep deprivation. Yeah. It really is. It really messes with you. So Kate, sending you lots of good vibes, especially since you have another little one to take care of.

3. Recommendations for resolving depression without medications [13:09]

Next question. This is from Lauren. Recommendations for resolving depression without medications. Before we answer it, remember we’re not doctors; anything we say remember to run it by your medical practitioner.

Diane Sanfilippo: I was going to say that too, right before I answered.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, always a disclaimer. Lauren says, “I’m wondering if you have any advice for dealing with depression without medications. For some time now, I’ve been experiencing bouts of depression that have been becoming more frequent as of late with little explanation as to why I’m feeling so down. I’ve been following a paleo lifestyle for over 2 years now, and I’m an avid crossfitter. In fact, at the end of July, I left my corporate job to run my fiancée’s Crossfit gym full time. I’d been feeling very unfulfilled in my old position and was itching to start a new adventure. Since I essentially became my own boss, I’ve been experiencing a mix of emotions and some frustration with still not feeling like I have a purpose. I think this is what’s driving my spells of depression, along with typical stress that goes along with being in a relationship, planning a wedding, etc.

That’s the thing though, I’ve been engaged for 3 months, and feel like they should have been the happiest 3 months of my life. Yet, for whatever reason, I still don’t feel like the normal, outgoing, funny person I have been. I have not tried going to a therapist as of yet, because I’m afraid of being labeled and advised to take medication. Thus, I’m just looking for any tips you may have to get me out of this funk and on to appreciating all that I have.

I eat nitrite free bacon, two eggs from my own chickens, and greens for breakfast. Lunch is usually a big salad with chicken, tons of veggies I buy at a local produce stand. Dinner is grass fed beef or wild caught fish, veggies, and a starch like sweet potato, rice, or squash. I make most of our meals at home, and when we go out to dinner, I still do not cheat. I drink alcohol typically on weekends, and it’s usually red wine or gluten free beers. I take 3 caps of Pure Pharma fish oil, 4000 IUs of vitamin D3, and 1 cap of their mineral supplement daily. I live in Florida, so I’m in the sun throughout the day. I do Crossfit or strength training workouts 5 times weekly. My sleep fluctuates as I teach a 6 a.m. class twice weekly, and typically do not sleep well the night before despite being in a completely black room with no devices. Three to four glasses of wine a week and three to four beers.” Or perhaps that is and/or 3-4 beers, I’m not sure.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I think it’s and/or.

Liz Wolfe: Ok.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think it’s or. Ok, so as Liz mentioned, definitely not medical advice, but in terms of anything that you can do nutritionally and lifestyle wise to support depression, definitely surprised to see that she’s in Florida, because I have not felt like myself since I moved back to New Jersey. There’s just been this lack of sunshine. This winter was really brutal. So for anyone listening who feels like they’re struggling with the same thing, and you live somewhere where winter exists {laughs} .

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: For those people, getting sunshine is definitely going to be critical to helping alleviate some of that depression. Obviously, for Lauren that’s not the case.

Liz Wolfe: D3 is not the same as what you’re saying, basically. Like a supplement.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, supplementing. I just don’t think, I think people talk about, if you need a vacation from your life.. I’m like, I think most people need sunshine, and if they’re not getting it, I think it’s really important to find a way to get. But yeah, I don’t think supplementing is going to be same. Especially if someone’s sleep isn’t good. Again, she’s getting sunshine here, but it’s really important to get that sun exposure.

But anyway, for Lauren, I don’t know that I think this is so much of a nutrition issue, as it is just a fulfillment of life and your passions and figuring out what you want to do. As she said, she doesn’t feel like she’s necessarily fulfilling a purpose. So I have some maybe off the beaten path thoughts and advice on this one.

I know a lot of people who are really into Danielle LaPorte’s work, and her book is called the Desire Map. I’ve been following what she’s doing, I haven’t read the book yet. I did download it on audible, and it’s coming up next for me to listen to for those of you who are interested. I know that her work kind of revolves around core desired feelings, and there’s an element of figuring out what it is we really want to feel, and trying to align our lives with that.

That’s part of what I think is really important. Because I think if we’re just trying to get up every day and feel happy, there’s something about figuring out what you want to be doing every day that is going to make the biggest difference. I mean, you’re eating great, so I really don’t have anything to say about your nutrition to help that. It would be great if your sleep could feel better. It says, typically do not sleep well the night before a 6 a.m. class. That’s a tough time to wake up that early and teach that, but I do know plenty of people who do it, and who aren’t suffering and struggling with depression, so I think it’s really on an individual basis. It’s not going to be the same for everyone with getting up that early, causing this kind of problem necessarily.

I think this is really more about figuring out how you want to spend your days and what will make you feel fulfilled. When I was struggling with not feeling fulfilled in a job that I had, I did go and talk to someone. This was years ago, probably, I want to say 2008. So it was after I ran the meal business, or around the same time, and leading into when I had the last corporate job that I had. I remember I was just really struggling, and I went to talk to some kind of therapist, I don’t know which type exactly, but she pretty much decided for me that I was bored and struggling because I needed to go learn something new, and have a new challenge. I wasn’t being challenged, my brain wasn’t being challenged, I wasn’t learning new things or helping people. It just wasn’t there.

You know, it could be that you jumped into this world of Crossfit with your now fiancé, and maybe you love Crossfit, and you could love it as a participant, but maybe doing that for your career is not fulfilling and just doesn’t feel great for you. So I do think that there’s a need for some space to figure that out, and that’s kind of my thought on that.

My other thought , and this is definitely diving into the whole relationship advice thing, however, I don’t know how long you’ve been with your fiancé. It says you’re engaged 3 months. But one thing that I think can really help too if you're feeling depressed, and I don’t know if this will have anything to do with it, but it’s something I like to talk about a lot, and I just want to bring it up because I think it can help everyone. It’s the five love languages. Now, I have to tell you, I don’t recommend getting the book, because we got the book, and it’s so hard to read. I don’t find it to be well written, and I’m sorry. It’s consistently New York Times’ bestseller, and I think the ideas behind it and the structure of the five love languages is totally spot on.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: We recently did this with my team, and just kind of more appreciation languages than love languages, because obviously I’m not going to be hugging and touching my team members all the time if that’s how they feel love or appreciation. But I think it’s so important to figure out how we feel love, and how our partner feels love, and in this case it might be more how she feels it if she’s dealing with this. Because I think this could be another issue. If you’re in a relationship, and you feel like you're happy, you love your partner, you're getting married, but there’s something missing, it could just be an element of this where there’s just a disconnect on how you both communicate love and appreciation to each other.

I think it’s really valuable to just jump on the five love languages website or whatever and take their quiz and figure out, if for you, your love language is words of affirmation, and your partner doesn’t know that telling you certain things is going to make you feel loved and say, for example he’s giving you gifts all the time and that doesn’t make you feel loved, then I think that could really disrupt your brain chemistry, for sure. Obviously, getting the hit that we feel when we feel loved and appreciated is emotional, but it’s also physical and physiological. So, I think that’s important.

The other thing that’s a little more practical, and a little more “here’s something you can do/take” to try and figure out what’s going on. Julia Ross’s book, the Mood Cure, we’ve talked about that a bunch, and I think I’ve probably talked about it a little bit more; I actually have a guest coming on the show, actually by the time this airs it should be the previous episode, who will be talking a lot more about anxiety and possibly depression as well. So hopefully you listened to episode, it should be 189, about that. She actually worked with Julia Ross for quite some time. But amino acid therapy can be really helpful.

And the way I see the purpose of that is if you feel like you want to go for therapy, I’m all for it. Do it. If they want to recommend a medication, and you’re just not ready for that, it’s ok if they want to recommend it. It doesn’t mean you have to take it. You do whatever you feel is right. But you may find that some of the amino acid therapy, I think in Julia’s book you go through and take a questionnaire and figure out which way you might go. Most of them are available at Whole Foods or online, and you can take low doses and figure out how that’s going to work for you, but they can really help boost your brain.

Just that little bit of a boost, along with whatever else you’re doing in conjunction with it. I don’t think just supplementing in this case is going to turn it all around, because it sounds like she’s just got a lot of these other life struggles, and I think getting that little boost, so that when you start making changes, your brain kind of is with you on it. I think that can help.

For me, it’s definitely been my surroundings and my every day is affecting it entirely. So I’m definitely, I don’t know at what point I can announce it on the podcast, but just some bigger life changes that I’m making because my daily life has not been supporting what I know makes me happy every day. And part of that is getting more sunshine, and part of that is being around more people all the time. Although I don’t necessarily need to talk to people all day, I often work in isolation and for me that doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t make me feel energized. So that’s my all around thoughts on the topic. I really don’t think this has much to do with food, as much as she gave us her whole list. You can throw in any other thoughts you might have there, Liz. What do you think?

Liz Wolfe: I’ve talked before on the podcast in the past I think about there was a point in my life where I went to therapy, because I was just feeling really, I just wasn’t feeling right. And I totally understand the whole, I don’t want to be labeled and I don’t want to be advised to take medication. And at the time that I sought some help, and I’m super pro-therapist, but you have to find the right one.

But I think at the time I sought help, I wasn’t really thinking about, oh shoot they’re going to prescribe medication. I don’t know, probably would have felt the same way. I don’t know that I would have taken medication. That was clearly not what I needed, I just really needed help working through some things, so that wasn’t my top priority, because I just didn’t feel like it would be an issue. I’m pretty sure, and I could be wrong, but I believe psychiatrists are the only mental health professionals that can prescribe medications. Psychologists, I don’t believe, can.

So if you just do a little bit of extra leg work in finding a therapist that is going to be a good fit for you, I’m totally, totally pro therapy. Sometimes it just helps to have somebody listen to you and help you work through things that doesn’t know you personally, that you aren’t worried about reporting to somebody else what you said or gossiping about any of the things that you’re feeling. So yeah, I would just really encourage you to maybe look into that, as well, if you just need to talk some things out, work some things out in addition to everything that Diane said.

Diane Sanfilippo: Pete’s Paleo is a friend of the Balanced Bites podcast. They’re bacon is insanely delicious, and sugar free, and their premade paleo meals make your life so much easier when everything is getting busy and getting real food on the table is still a top priority, as it should be. Pete’s Paleo is now offering a 30-day gut healing kit containing bone broth, gelatin gummies, instant organic soup packs, and an E-cookbook. It’s the perfect complement to any anti-inflammatory diet. Get yours today at guthealingkit.com. Use code GRABACUPPABROTH to get $25 off; that’s an amazing deal. It’s GRABACUPPABROTH, C-U-P-P-A. And you can grab that code at any time at BalancedBites.com to just read and make sure you’re typing it in right. You can also use code BALANCEDBITES to get $5 off any of their regular meal plans. Check out PetesPaleo.com today. Pete’s Paleo; bringing fine dining to your cave.

3. Low carb paleo and trouble breathing [27:07]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, next question. This is from Elise, oh from Norway, that’s exciting. Low carb paleo and having difficulty breathing, so what’s going on here. And we do have a little note here that she’s Norwegian, so the English is not perfect but we’ll try and get through this. I’m sure it makes perfect sense.

Elise says, “I eat paleo, of course, and have been eating a low carb version of it, 50ish carbs per day for about a year now. For the last 2 weeks, I’ve only gotten 25 carbs max per day, and this is because my tolerance for carbs is really low, and I want to lose more weight a little faster. The problem is my breathing; after cutting down on the carbs, I sometimes have trouble breathing correctly. It’s like I can’t get enough air, or something. Like in thin air, or extreme stress breathing. I kind of have to gasp for air. Not panicked, but just a soft gasping. Is this common? Is it only a temporary phase, and what’s actually happening? It’s just kind of tiresome, and I may be getting a little worried.

One week ago I got my mom on the ketogenic paleo diet too, and she has the same breathing problem; genetics? Typical daily food, tuna, salmon, broccoli, cauliflower, egg, bacon, ghee, chicken, carrots, coconut milk. Exercise on and off for about one month periods. Sleep around 8 hours. Supplements iodine, magnesium, vitamin C, and zinc.”

I know you picked this question, or I think you did, Diane.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: I’ve had this happen to me before when I’m under extreme stress.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, me too.

Liz Wolfe: I will have an issue, it’s almost like you’re trying to yawn but you can’t.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yep, I’ve had that.

Liz Wolfe: You just can’t pull that breath in. So I’m guessing this is centered around some kind of stress reaction in the body.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. I’ve definitely had it; I basically get it for the month before a book goes to print.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Which is, it’s a mental, emotional stress that becomes physical. And it’s terrible. You know?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I end up taking a ton of NeuroCalm, CatecholaCalm, all kinds of calming supplements to try and help and work on my stress, but it’s so, so hard. I think that for, in this case, if she’s trying to do low carb to lose weight, unfortunately I just don’t think it’s working that well for you. I feel like if it’s giving you this type of stress response in your body so immediately, I just think it’s not the right approach for you. Anything your body is responding to in that way so quickly, I mean you have to listen to your body. That’s really what I wanted to say about this one.

You could easily; she says, for the last 2 weeks only 25 grams of carbs, her tolerance is really low, wants to lose weight faster. I just…

Liz Wolfe: Not worth it.

Diane Sanfilippo: You can’t easily be ketogenic at 50 grams. I just don’t think, this is a stress response in the body, so if there’s not something else going on that’s trauma maybe in your family that would be causing stress for both you and your mom at the same time, which is always possible and we just aren’t seeing that here. But if that’s not the case, I also don’t know if there’s anything else about the environment there or any kind of altitude or any other issues that could make it more stressful to be eating low carb for them. I would definitely recommend go back to the 50 and see what’s happening.

You don’t have to just go low carb. If you’re trying to lose weight, there are a million ways to do it. I honestly think that if you up your carbs to see how you’re feeling in terms of this stress response, you’re eating plenty of fat, you could actually pull back on the fat a little bit if getting your overall calorie intake down is important to you. We’re not huge into counting everything, but there’s value to it at times, and if you feel like you overeat if you’re not counting or paying attention to it, we’re definitely not promoting anything low fat. But if you’re going ketogenic, high fat, low carb, and it doesn’t feel good, you can eat some more carbs and maybe pull out one tablespoon of oil in a day. That’s 120 calories worth, and eat that in carbs instead. Chances are, that’s going to feel a lot better for you.

50 grams is actually still probably going to put you in ketosis, but it might take longer. It sometimes takes 4 to 8 weeks to really get there, and so expecting it to happen really quickly is I think a little bit unrealistic. But she’s been doing 50 grams a day for about a year for the last two weeks, down to 25. I just think it’s too low.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know how active she is. She’s not really saying what that means, on and off for one month periods weight lifting, but if you’re active and your weight lifting, you definitely don’t need to go lower than 50. Just kind of the big picture answer there is, if your body is having this kind of situation happen, I consider it a stress response. So if that’s the big change that you’ve made, I would undo that and kind of approach it from a different angle, for sure.

Liz Wolfe: Very much so. And anything that causes stress on your body is going to stymie weight loss.

Diane Sanfilippo: For sure. And I would say, too, I don’t know if she’s working with a practitioner, but it’s possible that going really low carb in conjunction with, I don’t know how much iodine she’s supplementing with, that could just throw her thyroid out of balance if she’s been doing one thing and then she reduces it further. I think a lot of times we don’t give as much value as maybe we should to how much some of these nutritional changes can really affect our bodies.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: We’ve had this before where somebody drastically cuts calories right away, or drastically increases fat. Anything that we change that much, and 25 grams fewer than you were eating before doesn’t really seem like that much, but you’ve cut them in half, so I think that could absolutely push you over the edge and out of balance.

Liz Wolfe: I agree.

Diane Sanfilippo: So there you go.

4. Pasture raised beef in Florida [33:17]

Liz Wolfe: Alright. This one is from Lauren. We have a little asterisk here; cannot find pasture raised quality beef in Florida. Ok. Lauren says, “I have two questions for you. I currently live in southern California where I’m lucky to have access to a great meat provider who brings all I need, from bones to liver, at my local farmer’s market. I’m currently visiting family in Florida, and it seems there is no known pasture raised quality beef, even though the state provides much of the country’s supply.” The state provides much of the country’s supply. What does that mean?

Diane Sanfilippo: I think a lot of the beef comes from Florida? Perhaps? I don’t know.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, gotcha. Alright. “My family actually has several cattle ranches, but due to the lower quality of grass, the cattle is finished off on grain in Texas to fatten them up. This frustrates my family, and I, as we’d like to learn more about how we can transform our ranches to provide a healthier quality beef. Questions: Where can we find quality pasture raised beef in Florida, and how can we transform our ranches to be more sustainable to provide quality beef?”

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, I see, she lives in southern California, and she’s asking about Florida.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, I gotcha. Her family has a cattle ranch, and they use grain to fatten the cattle because of low quality grass. Where to find quality meat and how to avoid using grains in ranching. I don’t know, this is a little bit out of my realm of expertise as far as ranching goes. I do have some old friends in Montana that are involved with the Savory Institute, and that may be a place to look for ways of managing land such that you can feed your cattle appropriately as much as possible. So I’m really not sure as far as how to raise fully grass fed animals.

Diane Sanfilippo: The only thing I was going to say on this is, not only to look at EatWild, is it .com? EatWild.com?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I always wonder if it’s .com or .org. To look at EatWild.com to see some other local ranches that may be doing things differently. And I don’t know what the community might be like, but being able to reach out and see if there’s anyone else around that is doing it 100% grass fed. I know that one of the farms where I used to get grass fed beef from, what they did was they would cut the tall grasses, I think when it was actually growing, and then dry it out for hay over the winter.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: And that’s what they would really do in the months where the fresh growing grass wasn’t available. Now, of course, nutritionally for us, it’s not as ideal but obviously throughout the year, if we want something that’s locally raised, there are seasons, and there’s a season where there’s not fresh green pastures. So I think that’s really the approach I’ve seen most of the 100% grass fed farmers taking who don’t do grain supplementation and who do have winter months. They generally do hay, so they’ll have tons of hay bales wrapped up and ready to go over the winter.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. We fed our cows hay over the winter.

Diane Sanfilippo: I had a blog post on this; the farm that I went to was Harvest Home Meats. So if you go to BalancedBites.com and do a little search on the site for Harvest Home Meats, I went and spoke to the farmer who was running it, and he kind of gave us some background information and all that good stuff.

Liz Wolfe: Nice. I personally would not consider a cow fed hay not to be grass fed. I think that’s totally appropriate. I know some farms do ship their cattle to different places in the United States to keep them on growing grass that’s attached to the earth, but that has never bothered me, the idea of a cow being fed forage during the winter months.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Although a lot of the grass fed beef, a lot of what Trader Joe’s carries is actually shipped in from Australia.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.

Liz Wolfe: Or, I don’t know about New Zealand, but I know Australia just because I know they have a year-round growing season. Which is, there’s your carbon footprint.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: So it’s an interesting question.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

5. Speeding recovery time in bone healing [37:38]

Liz Wolfe: This is from Sandy. “Hello ladies! I’m a faithful listener to the podcast. My favorite way to listen is while hiking with my doggie.” Aww. “You all continue to inspire me, and I’m grateful to you. Here’s my inquiry. My 15-year-old son fractured his left collarbone in a soccer game on Tuesday, 8/26.” Wow. This was a while ago. {laughs} Sorry Sandy.

“It’s not a severe fracture, and does not require surgery. However, the orthopedic surgeon said recovery time is 6-8 weeks. As it stands, he’ll miss the remainder of the season. I’m determined that I can speed recovery time by sheer force of will and good food. I have him drinking homemade broth once a day and eating homemade gummies too. He’s been taking fermented cod liver oil for a while, and will continue that as well. Plus, I’m slathering him with essential oil blends.

In terms of food and/or supplements, do you recommend anything else to promote bone healing? I have some pureed liver in the freezer, would an occasional liver smoothie contribute to the healing process. Thank you for any wisdom you can lay on me.”

Diane Sanfilippo: I thought this one was good because I feel like we’ve touched on this a little bit before in terms of nutrition to support healing after any kind of injury, illness, hospitalization, etc. I guess we did dig this one up from the archives. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Oops! Well, she was doing a very good job, so. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I thought you’d probably have a little bit more to say about this too, but I actually think she’s doing really well with doing the gummies, fermented cod liver oil, all of that.

Liz Wolfe: yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think if someone is interested in promoting bone health further, there’s a few other foods that we’d probably both recommend. One would definitely be sardines, because you’ll be able to get some calcium, so obviously you want them with the bones in them. So that’s a great way to get calcium, that’s going to be the right type of calcium, bioavailable, highly absorbable because it’s coming with cofactors that are built right into that little tiny fish. {laughs} It’s kind of the perfect way to get calcium as opposed to a calcium chew, or something like that.

But also grass fed ghee. You’ve heard our sponsor, Tin Star Foods, is a really good source for grass fed ghee and you’ll be able to get some great fat soluble vitamins that are also cofactors to having calcium absorb properly, so vitamins A, D, there might be some K2 in there, I’m not sure. I don’t think we have a full nutritional breakdown, but in terms of just a whole foods source of that, that would be a good other food source.

What else were you going to throw in there?

Liz Wolfe: She’s got the vitamin A, the vitamin D, we talked about the vitamin K2. I would maybe, I mean if they’re doing some liver they’re getting some nucleic acid which is important for healing.

Diane Sanfilippo: Sunshine?

Liz Wolfe: I would maybe, yeah. Sunshine, and maybe some trace mineral drops just to make sure you’ve got all those good cofactors for calcium utilization. So, I can’t remember what they’re called, I think they’re ConcenTrace trace mineral drops. I’m not sure. But maybe if you wanted to add those to your water, that could be a way to boost some of those cofactors for healing. But other than that, I think you covered it.

Diane Sanfilippo: I just liked this question because I thought it was a good one, a lot of people are interested in. So, sorry Sandy if we answered this one too late for you, but we’ll give you a pat on the back because you were doing an awesome job.

Liz Wolfe: I love that; hoping I can speed recover time by sheer force of will and good food. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. {laughs} Amazing.

Liz Wolfe: Sheer force of will always works.

Diane Sanfilippo: Let us know if you did.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

6. Liz’s BMB tip of the week: fat thighs [41:33]

Liz Wolfe: Hey everyone! Liz checking in with a Baby Making and Beyond tip of the week. As usual, here with my BMB partner Meg the midwife.

Meg Reburn: Hey!

Liz Wolfe: Last week, we talked about a few probiotic strains that might benefic pregnant women. Today’s tip is a really fun one; this one is about your thighs.

Meg Reburn: Love those thighs.

Liz Wolfe: Love the thighs. I got the thighs. So remember, we’re not doctors, nor are we giving medical advice or offering diagnosis or treatment. This is just information for you to take to your health care provider or to scream from the rooftops, because this one is really, really cool. So, Meg. Why is it a good thing for women to have those night, curvy, meaty thighs like I’ve got.

Meg Reburn: {laughs} We do love thighs.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Meg Reburn: Thigh fat is really actually a good indicator of healthy fertility. It’s where we store good, healthy DHA. So that’s the fatty acid that’s really good for baby’s brain and neural developments, especially for use in the third trimester when our babies need lots of DHA and they need all that good brain development. Their brains are growing, their nervous systems are growing. Having lots of reserves can really help grow those happy, healthy babies. It’s where we mobilize fat for breastfeeding. Having curvy thighs is a really good indicator of being a healthy, fertile woman from an ancestral perspective.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, the whole ancestral preference towards certain waist to hip ratio.

Meg Reburn: Absolutely.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, yeah. Picking out a suitable partner who can build a baby with a good survival oriented brain.

Meg Reburn: And another cool thing is a lot of women agonize over it, but they really shouldn’t. Because we hold onto our hip and thigh fat; that’s the hardest thing to get rid of. When a woman is trying to lose weight, for whatever reason, their bodies just don’t want to let go of that. And they don’t want to let go of it for a really good reason. If we get stuck in a famine, or all of a sudden we don’t have the food to feed our babies, we still have it in reserve so that if we do get pregnant, we have those good reserves to be able to nourish and grow a little human being and feed them once they’re born.

So women, please don’t try to get rid of your hip and thigh fat. It is good, healthy fat that will grow a healthy, beautiful baby.

Liz Wolfe: Love it. So that’s it for our Baby Making and Beyond tips on the Balanced Bites podcast. That’s tip number 10, can you believe it Meg?

Meg Reburn: I can’t believe it.

Liz Wolfe: Hop over to BabyMakingandBeyond.com to sign up for program alerts, and look for Meg in the future on the Balanced Bites podcast. I know we’ve got a lot up our sleeves, we want to have you on for a real episode coming up.

Meg Reburn: Oh, I’m so looking forward to that.

Liz Wolfe: It will be awesome.

Meg Reburn: Yep.

Liz Wolfe: And thanks to Diane for letting us crash the party while I’m out on maternity leave. Thanks girl! Alright, we’ll talk to everybody when we talk to you.

Liz Wolfe: We’d like to thank Vital Choice for supporting our podcast today, and we encourage you to visit their online store at vitalchoice.com. You’ll find an amazing array of some of the world’s best seafood, including wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, tuna and cod, as well as sustainably harvested shellfish. These foods are not only delicious, but vital choices for your health. You’ll also find grass-fed organic Wagyu beef, live fermented foods to promote gut health, wild organic blueberries, and dark organic chocolates. Eat better, think better, and feel better with deeply nourishing foods from Vital Choice. They’re offering our listeners 15% off any order using code BALANCEDBITES. Remember that orders of $99 or more ship free.

Liz Wolfe: Ok, so that’s it for this week. You can find me at http://realfoodliz.com/, and if you want to get updated when Baby Making and Beyond comes out, go to BabyMakingandBeyond.com and just enter your email. You can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com. Be sure, while you’re on our websites, to join our email lists for free goodies and updates you don’t find anywhere else on our websites or on the podcast. And, while you’re on the internet, leave us a review in iTunes please. We’ll see you next week.