Topics
- News and updates from Diane & Liz [2:09]
- Liz's voice
- Diane's book tour
- Liz's Baby Making and Beyond program
- Favorite Thanksgiving dish [12:45]
- Listener question: Now that everything is keto, is paleo a fad? [17:14]
- Gift giving guide [22:27]
- What we're thankful for this year [43:37]
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You’re listening to the Balanced Bites podcast episode 375.
Diane Sanfilippo: Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast. I’m Diane; a certified nutrition consultant, and the New York Times bestselling author of Practical Paleo and the 21-Day Sugar Detox. My newest book, Keto Quick Start, will release on January 1, 2019. I live in San Francisco with my husband and fur kids.
Liz Wolfe: I’m Liz; a nutritional therapy practitioner, and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Eat the Yolks; The Purely Primal Skincare Guide; and the online program Baby Making and Beyond. I live on a lake in the mystical land of the Midwest, outside of Kansas City.
We’re the co-creators of the Balanced Bites Master Class, and we’ve been bringing you this award-winning podcast for more than 7 years. We’re here to share our take on modern healthy living, answer your questions, and chat with leading health and wellness experts. Enjoy this week’s episode, and submit your questions at http://blog.balancedbites.com or watch the Balanced Bites podcast Instagram account for our weekly calls for questions. You can ask us anything in the comments.
Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content within this podcast are intended as general information only, and are not to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Before we get started, let’s hear from one of our sponsors.
Liz Wolfe: Today’s podcast is sponsored by Vital Choice wild seafood and organics. America’s leading purveyor of premium, sustainable seafood and grass-fed meats, and a certified B corporation. Holiday season means parties and meals with family and friends, so now’s the time to stock up on deliciously healthy foods you’ll be proud to serve. Vital Choice offers a wide selection of wild seafood, grass-fed meats and poultry, and zesty organic soups. The perfect paleo-friendly fare for holiday feasting. And, they make hosting easy with luscious Nova Lox, Alaskan Crab, frozen at sea spot prawns, and much more. Be sure to save 15% on one regular order with the promo code BBPODCAST or get $15 off your first Vital Box with the promocode BBVITALBOX from now through the end of the year.
1. News and updates from Diane & Liz [2:09]
Liz Wolfe: Ok; so. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It’s actually me, by the way. Diane is looking at me right now {laughs}. I know my voice is a little sad.
Diane Sanfilippo: Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Well the weather is changing all of a sudden, and it was fairly normal humidity in the air, and then it went from 45 degrees one day to 15 degrees, and all the moisture in the air was completely gone. And my throat was like; don’t like it. Don’t like it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well you know me, I’m on the humidifier train. I would use it…
Liz Wolfe: Last night, I was lying in bed; I didn’t fill up the humidifier!
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: It’s like; I can’t. I’m just going to stay in bed. And I did it, and low and behold. You wake up sounding like I forgot to fill up the humidifier. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: And Harper does not like any watery sounds. Any {laughs} she’s not into it.
Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Is she able to drink water?
Diane Sanfilippo: Barely.
Liz Wolfe: Barely. {laughs} It’s very delicate.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, I was badly quoting Adam Sandler just a moment ago. And the other day we were in the kitchen, and I asked our; I will call it our Echo device. I don’t want to say her name because if someone is listening to this, it will turn it on. And then the whole thing will go. But I asked to play Christmas music, and Scott was like; really? Now? We just finished Halloween. It’s going to be Thanksgiving. I’m like; but there is no Thanksgiving music! There’s one Thanksgiving song, and I can’t just play that on repeat. So Christmas music it was. So yeah, I’ve already gone all in on the Christmas music. We’re going to pull out the lights. It’s happening.
Liz Wolfe: It is happening. I’m feeling especially non-Thanksgiving-y. Not non-thankful, but I really; many years, Thanksgiving was my absolute favorite holiday, and it was my family’s favorite holiday. And now, I’m just ready to skip right on past it, put up the Christmas lights, erect several Christmas trees, and just crash right on through. I’m just not into it this year.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, I am cooking for just the two of us, and that’s it. Just making all the food, and having the turkey the one day and then that’s it. But we’ll talk more about favorite Thanksgiving foods in a bit.
Liz Wolfe: Indeed. So what’s going on with you?
Diane Sanfilippo: So, I have tour updates for everyone. I actually forgot to pull this up so I’m going to pull this up. Tour updates for everyone. If you are interested in coming to meet me on tour. And hey; you don’t have to be interested in eating keto to come to a book tour event. You can just come meet me.
Liz Wolfe: You have only to be interested in Diane Sanfilippo.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: To attend one of these events.
Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, I will be talking about keto. But if you’ve not been able to make it to an event before. If you have any of my books. If you want to get one of them and come to the event. If you have a friend who has been curious about keto, and you want to go with them to join them, etc. So anyway, would love to meet you. It’s always awesome to put faces with names. Or to see some of you again, and then we have a picture every year. And we can see how well we’re aging with our amazing skincare! {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Oh my goodness.
Diane Sanfilippo: Anyway. So I’m going to rattle off some dates and cities, and there are more to come. I’ll rattle off some cities without dates right now. But I’ll be nailing those down soon. So, January 3rd is a Thursday in San Francisco; Friday January 4th in Huntington Beach, which is southern California. Sunday, January 13th in Boca Raton, Florida. Thursday January 17th Dallas, Texas. Friday January 18th. Houston, Texas. Sunday the 27th Los Angeles. Thursday the 31st in Seattle. And then two dates in Portland; Friday February 1st in Portland. That’s a full signing with talk, etc. And Saturday 2nd, also in Portland. It’s just a signing, and you’ll find out why. Well, I guess I can tell you.
Because it will be at a Costco. So I can’t really talk over the loudness of the store there. I’ve tried it; it doesn’t go well. So it’s just going to be a signing line. But if you can’t come Friday, that’s a good time to come Saturday. And then sat February 16th, I’ll be in Las Vegas.
And some more cities; I’ll be in Washington D.C., Charlotte, North Carolina; Kansas City with this one over here. Denver, Chicago, Columbus, Rochester, and Phoenix. I don’t have dates for all of those yet, but I will. And so yeah, I would love to see you. And you can get all of that information over at www.blog.balancedbites.com/tour.
What is going on over by the lake?
Liz Wolfe: Well, we are finally in our Baby Making and Beyond beta review extravaganza. Which is going to be really fun. This week is our first live call with the beta testers. They’ll be giving us feedback on the nutrition section. We will be doing some reformulation based on the feedback that we’re getting. Then we will move onto the other three sections feedback weeks. And it will hopefully help build a stronger, more robust program for everybody before we relaunch in early 2019. That’s really what’s been going on.
Diane Sanfilippo: That is really exciting.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. It is exciting. And you know, it’s interesting.
Diane Sanfilippo: I feel like I should have had the New Years’ noise makers when you first mentioned it.
Liz Wolfe: Something.
Diane Sanfilippo: But you were like; we launched a beta. You were super mellow about it. So I think for me to respond with noisemakers would have been…
Liz Wolfe: Disproportionate?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, like wildly inappropriate and way disproportionate to your level of enthusiasm.
Liz Wolfe: I swear to you, I’m really excited, but my voice cracks at high pitch. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok. There we go.
Liz Wolfe: So it is exciting. What’s been interesting so far. I’ve got some really positive feedback. One of the things that I was worried about is that we were going to be giving people too much information. And in some ways, I kind of wish I had asked for beta feedback a long time ago, before I produced a lot of what I produced; a lot of the nutrition section and all of that before we produced a lot of what we produced for the program. But at the same time, I was in the mode where I felt like a ton of ideas and feedback firing at me would actually ruin my focus a little bit. So I think there’s no really other way that we could have done this.
I think it’s going really, really well that the beta feedback stuff. And I think what I’m really curious about is how close the; coming off the election. How close the race is going to be between; we want more information and; no, we want less information and less to stress about. And at this point, it almost looks like 51-49. So it’s going to be a tough call to figure out if we want to flood these sections with more information. Which we have prepped. It’s ready. But a lot of stuff we hesitated to put in there, because it’s almost; not superfluous, but a lot of people don’t need to know the why. And the really, really detailed information. They just kind of want to know the nuts and bolts. And that’s totally fair.
So there may be an opportunity to build kind of a more; not even practitioner-oriented program, but a, I don’t know, Baby Making and Beyond lite, and Baby Making and Beyond promise me you won’t stress about all of this but I’ll give you the information.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. That makes sense. Whenever I’ve put content into a book, my editor is always like; Diane. You can’t put everything you know in one book.
Liz Wolfe: Right, yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: And I’m like; but I’m trying!
Liz Wolfe: But you can put it all in a website.
Diane Sanfilippo: You can put it in a website. Which makes it really tricky. And I totally see what you're saying, too. Because there’s a limit to how much people really need to know to then not stress over certain things. And then there’s the deeper dive that there’s a small percentage of folks who can really benefit from it. But if it’s shared with everyone, it’s going to cause more stress than it needs to. So, yeah. I think it’s really great to consider that. And I’m sure you’ll find a great solution to offering it in a way that feels sane without stressing out the people who don’t need to be stressed about it, but having it accessible in some way.
Yeah, we can talk about it offline. But I’m excited for you, because I think that sounds awesome. And I think the idea of something that’s very approachable for 90-95% of people who need it that way. I think that makes the most sense. I personally; obviously we know I will not be having babies. But if I were, I don’t think I would want all the deep dive. Because I think it would make me more anxious about things.
Liz Wolfe: Right. And I don’t know if I would have; here’s the thing. It’s one of those things that you can’t learn it until you’ve been through some kind of experience where you realize how stressful that stuff can be.
Diane Sanfilippo: Context.
Liz Wolfe: Because I would have wanted all of it. Really, foundationally, people that want to get pregnant. It’s like; you want all of this information. But a lot of the times you don’t need it. At the same time, I know people are paying more for this. It’s not an inexpensive program. And it’s not a matter of; I want people to feel flooded with content so they think they’re getting their money’s worth. Where that money really goes is in an ongoing research team. We have already found new information gone in and updated information that we already had out there. That’s the strength of it. That’s what you're paying for. You're paying for something that’s like a living, breathing thing that can be updated and new research can be brought in.
So we’re just kind of balancing that. And some of that is also in the marketing, a little bit I think. Which is not my strong suit, clearly. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} You're like; come get this program. It’s released. Bye!
Liz Wolfe: It’s released, bye!
Diane Sanfilippo: Running away.
Liz Wolfe: If you need anything let me know. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok bye.
Liz Wolfe: I’ll be huddled in front of my humidifier.
2. Favorite Thanksgiving dish [12:45]
Liz Wolfe: Alright. Favorite Thanksgiving Dish. Go.
Diane Sanfilippo: Delicious dish?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, I was thinking earlier. Cue you and I sounding like the delicious dish.
Diane Sanfilippo: Schweddy balls reference. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: In the holiday season. So good. I will start with my favorite Thanksgiving dish. GBC. The notorious GBC. Green bean casserole.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was literally like; what is she talking about?
Liz Wolfe: Huh? This was really hard because who doesn’t love stuffing and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.
Diane Sanfilippo: Interesting. I can’t believe you would call out a vegetable. Who are you?
Liz Wolfe: Well, I mean, I know.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s barely a vegetable.
Liz Wolfe: And it’s not even a blackened vegetable. It’s not even a roasted to death vegetable. It’s just so good. So good.
Diane Sanfilippo: Nostalgic.
Liz Wolfe: I’ve always loved it. And really you can make a pretty good approximation of the old school condensed soup plus whatever those onion crunch things are. You can make a pretty decent version of that in a healthy manner. Which I like that just as much.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t remember which book I put it in. I have a recipe in one of my sugar detox books for that. And it’s in my holiday eBook as well. So there, I should just mention that. That’s a preorder bonus for people getting Keto Quick Start. they can get my holiday eBook. And there is a healthy version of a green bean casserole!
Liz Wolfe: We didn’t even do that on purpose!
Diane Sanfilippo: I was like, what’s she talking about; GBC? {laughs} I was feeling like a Thanksgiving dodo over here. Should I know what that is?
Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Thanksgiving dodo. Alright, what’s yours?
Diane Sanfilippo: My favorite, and actually Scott and I were just talking about this recently because it’s his favorite. And I don’t think he’d ever had this dish in this form before being with me. But it’s a sausage-based stuffing. And if you wanted to throw some bread or some gluten free bread or paleo bread or whatever you want into it, you could. But it’s a sausage-based stuffing with tons of onions and carrots and celery, of course. I think I’ve chopped apple in it. There’s some cranberry. There’re some chestnuts. It’s relatively low carb. You could omit the chestnuts if you wanted to. But even with that, it’s pretty low carb for the people who eat that way. Or again, you could throw in some bread if you want.
But, what’s so great about it is that it’s super filling, because it’s sausage based. But it also has that little pop of tartness from the cranberries. Which is kind of my obsession. And it’s really pretty from the cranberries and the carrots. {laughs} I’m really into; I don’t know, I like my food to be pretty. So I really like that dish. That one is also in the eBook. But that’s one of my favorites. I love the flavors of stuffing. It’s got that sage, and a little bit of rosemary. To me, sage is just the flavor of Thanksgiving. Because I don’t really cook with sage much the rest of the year. There’s a little bit of sage in the Italian blend from BB Spices, because that’s what you’ll use to make Italian sausage. So there’s a bit of sage in there. But for me, that sage flavor is what really feels like Thanksgiving.
Anyway. I would say stuffing. Sausage stuffing. Especially with cranberries. And chestnuts. My grandma used to always make stuffing with chestnuts, so that flavor kind of reminds me of her. So that’s my favorite.
Liz Wolfe: The Balanced Bites podcast is sponsored in part by the Nutritional Therapy Association. The NTA trains and certifies nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants (including me; I’m an NTP), emphasizing bio-individuality and the range of dietary strategies that support wellness. The NTA emphasizes local, whole, properly prepared nutrient dense foods as the key to restoring balance and enhancing the body’s ability to heal.
The NTA’s nutritional therapy practitioner program and fully online nutritional therapy consultant program empower graduates with the education and skills needed to launch a successful, fulfilling career in holistic nutrition. Registration is now open for February class, and you can learn more and save your seat by going to http://www.NutritionalTherapy.com. Don’t forget to check out the NTA’s annual conference, Roots, happening March 1 through 3 in Portland, Oregon. It’s one of the most empowering and educational holistic nutritional events of the year, and all are welcome.
3. Listener question: Now that everything is keto, is paleo a fad? [17:14]
Liz Wolfe: Ok, we have a very interesting listener question today. This is from Grace. “Honest question; I’m so confused with so many going keto. These people used to be paleo. Is paleo now considered a fad? I’ve been paleo/primal since 2012, and see so many I follow turning to keto. Just curious. Thanks for listening.”
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} So this is a good question. And actually, Grace asked this one over on Facebook. And I thought it was a good one to kind of bring out for everyone to hear about. And I think I’ve addressed this a little bit on the podcast. Because, one of the things I think has happened with the popularity of keto is just social media in general, and the spread of information that we have. A lot of people who have transformation stories. The way those are shared from the original person with the story, but then shared with other people. I think the information is spreading faster with apps like Instagram, of course.
And so I think people are just getting exciting in seeing results, and wanting to find out what it’s all about. So on the tip of people who maybe were eating paleo, now going keto. If it’s coming from somebody who is, let’s say, a recipe blogger. Well, that recipe blogger is trying to write recipes and use titles to their recipes and format recipes that you will be interested in. And so if you were to look online and check out what people are searching for in Google, for example, way more people are interested in and searching for topics around keto than paleo now. And paleo really hit its heyday back around 2013 or even early 2014 in terms of search and in terms of how people were spreading it.
But I think what’s happening is there’s a lot more research and attention going into keto, because a handful of people got more interested. I know even folks like Rob Wolf; he has been talking about keto and low-carb for forever. But because people have become more curious about it, he’s kind of driven further into that realm to talk about it more.
So for someone like myself; I actually was eating keto paleo when I wrote Practical Paleo. And I’ve told this story a couple of times. I put it in the intro to the book. But when I finished writing the recipes, I looked back at everything that was in the book, and I was like; uh-oh, I should add some more carbs here. Because I really didn’t have that many in the book. It was food that I was eating that I put into the book. So I went back and added three or four recipes that had sweet potato or something that was a little bit more carby in the recipe.
So I was eating this way back in 2010 into 2011, and several times since then for different periods of time. Whether it’s a month, or three, or six. I just didn’t talk about it, because people weren’t talking about it. But it’s something that I’ve used as a tool to kind of help address blood sugar imbalances, address cravings, folks who would go on the 21-Day Sugar Detox, some of them; depending on what you eat on the 21-Day Sugar Detox, you might actually be eating for ketosis. A lot of folks, and Liz you and I have talked about this a lot. A lot of folks on paleo, or they go paleo, and they accidentally went low-carb. Could have accidently gone keto. And for some people that was a good thing, and for some people it wasn’t. For a lot of people it wasn’t.
So I think there are a couple of things going on there. For me, personally, it’s actually something that I have done for almost a decade on and off and just didn’t talk about. And actually, a few years ago I made a couple of videos about it, and then I was like; I don’t want to talk about this. Because I don’t like to talk about a topic in brief isolation without more context. Because I think that doesn’t do the answers I have justice for people. So when I thought about writing a book, I was like; then I can put the whole picture in here. I can explain to you how important it is that the quality of fats that you're eating is high. And here’s how you choose healthy, quality fats, and all of that.
So anyway. For me, long story short, I’ve really been eating this way on and off since almost a decade ago, but just really didn’t talk about it. So if you see other people who are working on healing themselves, and they were eating paleo and now they’re dabbling with keto, there’s also a great possibility that they weren’t still experiencing benefits from paleo and wanted to try keto. So you never know.
So if you're curious why each individual person that you might follow is moving that direction, unless they’re a recipe developer. If they’re a recipe developer, I’m just going to tell you it’s because that’s what people are searching for, so people are going to develop recipes to match that. But if they’re not a recipe developer, then just ask them. Like; hey, why are you making this shift?
And I think the way you posed it to me; I didn’t feel at all defensive in answering it. I thought that it was a very graceful way to ask the question. And I think it’s fair for you to ask other people why they made a shift, so that you can learn from each of them.
4. Gift giving guide [22:27]
Liz Wolfe: Alright. I like it. Ok. So today is our much anticipated annual holiday gift guide episode!
Diane Sanfilippo: Dun-dun-da! Do we have a sound effect for that?
Liz Wolfe: No, that’s what I was wondering, where are these sound effects you were talking about earlier. Yeah! You should go back and listen to our past episodes if you want more ideas. But we’re going to share some of our current favorites here today. No real rhyme or reason. I think we’ll just go back and forth, and share what we’re loving for the moment. How does that sound?
Diane Sanfilippo: Sounds good to me.
Liz Wolfe: Alright. You start. Not it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Not it. So this is something that I love for any occasion. For all times of year. And just a side note; in this list of things that we’re going to talk about, there might be some of these brands that you know, or some of our sponsors, like Vital Choice we’re going to mention. A couple that you guys know. But this list in general is not sponsored. This is just a matter of us saying things that we love. So just wanted to get that out of the way.
Farm Girl Flowers. This is a perfect gift for a host. So maybe you know that you're going to someone’s house for Thanksgiving, and you want to send something that will be a beautiful centerpiece. So that would be Thanksgiving. {laughs} What am I talking about. For Christmas dinner or any holiday dinner. I think that would be a great gift for the actual holiday. I think it would also be a great gift to just send someone even a card and say they’re going to be getting flowers of the month. Maybe sending three smaller bouquets for three months in a row.
I think it’s a great gift for any time. I’m a huge fan; people have sent them to me before. And I’m not usually that into flowers. I think flowers are great, fine. But these bouquets in particular are just always so stunning and kind of like a show stopper and totally worth it. I think they’re priced really well for what they are, so I highly recommend Farm Girl Flowers. I just love, love, love.
Liz Wolfe: I have been the recipient of Farm Girl Flowers once or twice, and they are glorious.
Diane Sanfilippo: Delightful, right?
Liz Wolfe: Absolutely delightful. The whole presentation, the arrangement. It’s just they’re gorgeous.
Alright; mine is Beautycounter’s holiday line!
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: You get a box, and you get a box! It’s really good this year.
Diane Sanfilippo: Tell me what some of your favorites are. Because I have some favorites.
Liz Wolfe: Oh my gosh. The lip intense. I’m so; I have never worn lipstick in my life before the lip intense collections. And the new shades that came out are awesome. It’s just really, really fun to be able to play with high performance products that are still safe. And that sounds like an ad; it is really not. Because there’s not been anything like this in the realm of makeup available for people that wanted safer options, ever. I just love it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, one of my friends was surprised when I was saying how; there’s one of those Instagram things where it’s like circle three. You can only keep three of these things. And lipstick on the list. And she’s like; you wouldn’t circle lipstick? I feel like you're so into lipstick. I’m like; I’m only into it because now we have these safer products, and I’m excited to put them on. But I was not that into lipstick before and now I totally am too.
Liz Wolfe: Yes! It’s so funny.
Diane Sanfilippo: I feel like if I ingest it I’m not freaked out.
Liz Wolfe: It’s so true. And you and I have been on some conference calls recently, and you are always rocking a different shade of the lip intense. It’s good stuff. And the packaging is beautiful, as always. What are your favorites from the holiday line?
Diane Sanfilippo: Talking about lip stuff, also, I actually really like the transforming duo. Which I think; is it Christian Dior? There’s some other brand that had this. Essentially it looks like this pale pink lipstick that when you put it on, it’s sheer. But it interacts with the pH of your lips. And it just kind of tints them a little bit of a deeper pink. Have you used it?
Liz Wolfe: I haven’t tried it yet.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh my gosh, I love it.
Liz Wolfe: I’ve heard it’s wizardry, though.
Diane Sanfilippo: So I love it because when you put it on; and this is the flip side of; I love putting on a red lip, but I have to be in the mirror and paying attention. So with this other product, you can actually just not be looking. It applies and feels kind of like Chapstick. So it just feels really smooth. But it will make your lips a little bit of a deeper pink. And then there’s a clear gloss that goes over it that I know you used to love. Beautycounter used to have a lip gloss kind of product.
Liz Wolfe: Yes; clear gloss.
Diane Sanfilippo: So the clear gloss that goes with it is that way too. So that’s the other side of what I love of the lip products. Because if I want to put something on with a little bit of color. Because a lot of times, I’ll go super intense on eye makeup, and then I don’t always want to put a big bold lip on with that. So I really like that.
Liz Wolfe: I think that’s smart choice.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I like that. And then the other thing that I’ve really been liking is anything that has this manoi scent. Which, I’m not usually into floral scents. But let me tell you what this stuff smells like. So you can Google manoi. It’s actually based; it’s gardenias soaked in coconut oil. Which sounds way out there to me. But what it smells like are smarties. Do you guys know the candies smarties?
Liz Wolfe: What?!
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Do you know smarties?
Liz Wolfe: I am sure that is exactly what they were going for. {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: No, but manoi is a scent. Beautycounter didn’t invent that scent. It was a thing. But it smells like smarties. So I don’t usually like flowery smells, but when I smell it, it smells like candy of yesteryear. Of yore. The days of yore.
Liz Wolfe: Right. Yore. Which was, yore.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yesteryear.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. A fortnight ago.
Diane Sanfilippo: I love quoting Friends. So anyway, I actually really love the scent of it. So that’s surprising for me, because I don’t normally like floral scents. So we have a bunch of stuff that came in that scent. I’m into it.
Diane Sanfilippo: OK, so my next one are boxes from Five Mary’s Farms. This is their farm club. You can get them in different sizes. I’m just a huge fan of Five Mary’s Farms. You guys have heard me talk about it before. You’ve seen me post about them on social media. They’re not a sponsor; although they will send me some meat now and then, which is so, so wonderful. But they just have excellent product. And they’re doing things right. They’re just a wonderful family and I love being able to support their business. So check them out; Five Mary’s Farms.
Named that way because Mary is the mom’s name, and then each of the four daughters; they have different names. So it’s like Mary Theresa, Mary Francis. All different names. None of them are actually called Mary except for the mom. But anyway. Five Mary’s. Super fun to follow on Instagram. And absolutely amazing, high quality, delicious meat. So check them out.
Liz Wolfe: Ok. I’ve got one. I have a gift I like. Any of our books!
Diane Sanfilippo: This is true.
Liz Wolfe: You could preorder Diane’s. Keto Quick Start you could maybe preorder and do something creative with a postcard or something like that. But Eat the Yolks is always good. It’s always good to give a book to somebody so they feel like whatever they’re doing is wrong. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} I think a book is such a great gift. We were talking about this before we started the show. I know lots of you ladies listening are maybe in your 20s or your early 30s, and you're super into health and wellness. You’ve got friends who listen to the show with you. And maybe you talk about the show when you hang out, or you text about it. I’m just imagining how much you love our podcast.
Liz Wolfe: Our band of fans that just text each other about us all day long.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because we’re friends.
Liz Wolfe: Absolutely.
Diane Sanfilippo: I do. I text people about the people who host podcasts that I listen to. What? What of it?
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: But I actually think that would be really fun if some of you don’t already have the books and you’ve been following along for a long time. What a great time at the holidays; buy one for a friend. Maybe that would be a lovely gift. So there you go.
And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t say Balanced Bites spices as a fantastic gift. I think a lot of people hesitate to sometimes spend money on something like spice blends. Just like different chocolates, or sometimes people do wine, or different; I’m saying fancy in air quotes, because they’re really not fancy. But different food items that sometimes people feel aren’t necessarily every day. But spices really are every day foods. And BB spices; I think they’re a really fantastic gift. Honestly, because they are in these large bottles. They feel really nice, and they’re a nice presentation.
And; I’ll say this. Stay tuned; as we get closer to Christmas. I can’t say this will definitely be launching in time for Thanksgiving, but as we get closer to Christmas there may be, wink, wink, something special you can do as a gift for someone using BB Spices. So you can always stay tuned to my Instagram for details on that. And too at Balanced Bites on Instagram for that.
Liz Wolfe: Ok, so in the food; in that category, what about Vital Choice vital boxes?
Diane Sanfilippo: I think that’s great.
Liz Wolfe: They can use our code, BBVITALBOX for $15 off.
Diane Sanfilippo: My parents absolutely love whenever I sent them anything from Vital Choice. They’re super into eating seafood. Especially; they like getting high quality stuff. Can’t always find it locally. But they’ve loved it every time. My parents, especially, love the salmon burgers. Those aren’t my favorite, but they really love those.
I think that’s a great gift. That’s another one of those nice food items that somebody might not always think to first buy for themselves. But I think it’s a great one.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, yeah. I mean, people balk at the price of salmon all the time. I’d take salmon for a gift. And I will say, also, I just recently placed an order for myself and my parents, and I got three different types of salmon. Vital Choice has all these different types of fish and different types of salmon. And I line them up next to each other, and one is this glorious deep salmon color. And another one is this beautiful just rich peach color. And then another one, I can’t remember what color that is. I’ll have to take a picture of it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Is it the white one?
Liz Wolfe: No, it’s not the white one. Gosh I can’t remember now. But they’re from different parts of the, I don’t know, wherever salmon come from. Different parts of the world, I guess. Or different areas. And they’re all these different beautiful colors. It was just the coolest thing.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m such a fan of salmon. Love it.
Liz Wolfe: I’m such a fan of everything I’ve gotten from Vital Choice. I really am.
Diane Sanfilippo: Me too. That’s why they’ve been a sponsor for so long. Because we love them so much.
Liz Wolfe: They can never leave us.
Diane Sanfilippo: I know. Please don’t ever leave us.
Liz Wolfe: Because we’d find them. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I’ll find you! {laughs} Scott and I do that all the time. Actually, I just say it to him all the time.
{video clip}
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, so curling iron that I use for my hair. Now, for a long time, this thing was called the style winder. And I think the company dry bar; I think they bought out this product and they’re like; we don’t want you to sell this anymore. We want to private label it. And now it’s only sold; it’s called the three-day bender. Because all of this stuff; which I’m not sure I’m into this theme, but I’m just going to say what it is. All of their products have alcohol themes. Which, to me, I’m like; eh. Eyeroll.
Liz Wolfe: I’m kind of over that now, you know.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, it’s not really my thing. But it’s called a three-day bender. Which, rightfully so. Because if you curl your hair one day, it’s probably going to have some curl in it for about three days. So that’s what it’s called. I think it’s a yellow curling iron now.
And the way that I’ve used it in the past was as intended where you kind of use the clippie thing and the whole barrel rotates. But now I’ve been doing what I call the wrappie method; where you just take the piece of hair, and you wrap it around.
So anyway. That curling iron is great. I will give a caveat; be really, really careful with it. Because it gets super hot. And basically the only way to really be forewarned is to actually burn yourself once, and then you will never do it again. {laughs} But it gets much hotter than a standard curling iron. It gets as hot as; you know how flat irons get super hot? That’s how hot this thing gets. But I absolutely love it. I’m pretty sure it’s called the three-day bender from Dry Bar. I use a one-inch curling iron. I think it’s more versatile than a thicker one. So that’s what I love.
Do you have something for kiddos you want to recommend?
Liz Wolfe: Yes. Many people have already heard about magnatiles. But I also would like to just give a little shout out to the off brand, magnetic tiles. {laughs} Because my daughter is 3.5 and we have magnatiles and we also have some off-brand magnetic tiles that we were given for her third birthday. And the off-brand ones are all the same size. So it’s like 10 of the same size square and 10 of the same size triangle. And for whatever reason, at this stage she’s more interested in building these kind of symmetrical structures versus using these magnatiles, which are a bunch of different sizes, different types of triangles, different types of rectangles, that are kind of a little bit less straightforward in how you build with them. So she’s loved these cheapo off-brand magnetic tiles. You can just get them on Amazon. And I think they’re fabulous.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m all about that building. I love that. That’s cool. So my next one; and this is just purely thinking of things that I would enjoy, and I basically do ask for. Although I end up buying them for myself over and over. But comfy slippers. I think slippers are a great gift. I think finding something that people can wear around this house. This kind of ties into sort of looking at the side of nontoxic living, and being a little bit healthier in the house.
I don’t know if we’ve talked about this on the show. But I think one thing everyone can start to get in the habit of is taking your shoes off at the front door. So our house happens to have this downstairs entryway vestibule. I think of Chandler being trapped in an ATM vestibule. Anyway. {laughs} There are certain words I can’t say without being triggered to quote old TV shows. Liz is coughing or she’d be laughing along with me.
Anyway. I think it would be really fantastic if; maybe this will be a New Years’ resolution for people. To get in the habit of taking your shoes off at the front door. Now, here in San Francisco, it’s like a little chilly all year. It never gets really hot, and it never gets super cold. But I pretty much wear slippers all year round, because I can’t imagine walking around the house with just socks on. I think my feet would be cold all the time. But this is a way to keep just whatever you're walking around in outside, whatever environmental toxins are out there. Keeping your shoes at the door keeps a lot of that stuff from just being walked through the house.
So I would love to see people not wearing shoes in the house. I’ll tell you what; whenever I watch an episode of Fixer Upper, and everyone is standing in the bathroom in shoes, and they’re walking on a white bathmat with their shoes, I’m like; can you all not wear your shoes, please, in the house, and walk on a bathmat where your clean feet get out of the shower. I’m not a germaphobe, but there is something about the bath mat to me that’s sacred. That I’m like; can you not have your shoes on that? Where my just pristine feet are about to step for the day? This is my weirdness.
Liz Wolfe: I’m sitting here wearing my boots that I’ve had on all day long, worn them all the way through my house and into my closet. So I’m feeling a little sheepish.
Diane Sanfilippo: But don’t you think it’s partially because; for me, it’s partially because my feet would be cold if I took my shoes off.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, well it’s a cold day and we just came in from being outside at a birthday party. So yeah, I didn’t want to take them off because I would be cold.
Diane Sanfilippo: So comfy slippers. And here’s the thing. These come in many different forms. My friend Lanie from Life is but a Dish recently; I’m very passionate about slippers, you guys. She posted some Dearfoams once that looked like these little ballet slipperish ones that I think for southern California could be great. Then there’s some that come to ankle height, which I’m wearing. But you can actually get indoor booties; slipper booties, that actually come halfway up your calf, and would be kind of like a boot so they’re much cozier.
I will do my best to post various slippers. Maybe on Instagram, maybe on the website with this episode to give you guys some that I have loved. Anyway. I’m just on a slipper rant right now. Partially for health and keeping your house clean reasons, and partially just for comfort, and let’s keep our feet warm. So there you go. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Ok.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m passionate about slippers.
Liz Wolfe: Alright so I have one of the best ones. Maybe. I actually just stumbled across this today, because we’re getting all the holiday catalogues now. And catalogues annoy the stuffing out of me 11 months a year.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: But catalogues from Halloween to Christmas provided I get them before the shipping deadline, I will flip through every single one. I love them. So I was flipping through the Sharper Image catalogue today and say a stainless steel easy egg cooker. And so you can basically put your eggs in there, and you set it to soft boiled, medium, or hard boiled. And you can get perfect eggs in however many minutes. Which is very exciting! Because I continue to use the Instant Pot method, and every single time, my egg yolks are either way under cooked or they’re green. And it’s the saddest thing to waste a pastured egg turning the yolk green.
Diane Sanfilippo: That is sad.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’ve heard Gretchen Rubin speak the; I should say sing the praises of these devices many times on the Happier podcast.
Liz Wolfe: Ok!
Diane Sanfilippo: She’s super into it because she eats tons of hardboiled eggs, eating also low-carb. But not also, as in addition to Liz. {laughs} But I’m with you. I think if someone is super into eggs, whether hard or soft boiled, and is not that into the cooking process, I would definitely go for that. Because I would much rather see somebody using an egg cooker than overcooking their eggs. It is not a gift that I would personally appreciate.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I would be like; how dare you think I can’t cook my eggs appropriately without this egg cooker.
Liz Wolfe: You brat.
Diane Sanfilippo: Totally. A total brat. I take a lot of pride in my variety of egg cooking abilities. But look; I’m writing a cookbook.
Liz Wolfe: And I do not. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: But I’m writing cookbooks, so shouldn’t I? I fee like that’s my wheelhouse.
Liz Wolfe: That’s true. Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok. Fair enough. Ok, so last but not least for right now, Luxley makeup brushes. You guys, these are amazing makeup brushes. Actually one of our friends, Genevieve Blair, she created them. This is a line she created. And she’s actually a Beautycounter consultant. But you know what? Sometimes when you can specialize in something like brushes; and she’s a makeup artist, also an esthetician. And just an all-around awesome chick, right? I just love her.
Anyway, Luxley brushes. We’ll put a link. We’ll post it on Instagram and show you guys some more details. But I think we’re going to get a discount code from her for these brushes (use discount code UKRDYD3W.) So if you're somebody who is into makeup, they’re beautiful. They have rose gold, and white. There’s a magnetic stand that they all can rest on. You know how sometimes you're fishing through your makeup bag for your brushes? Well you can leave this on your counter and just kind of magnetize them all standing up where you can see exactly what you're looking for. They’re just amazing brushes.
Anyway, check them out. I’m sure I’ll be showing them more on my Instagram stories. So those are a fantastic gift for any makeup loving lady.
Ok, so we’re going to wrap up the gift giving ideas right there.
Diane Sanfilippo: Today’s podcast is sponsored by Perfect Keto. Dr. Anthony Gustin and his teams have created a line of supplements that are super clean and effective, no matter what your dietary needs. I’ve been blending their MCT oil powder into my matcha latte lately. Not only are MCTs; medium chain triglycerides; a premium source of your body’s preferred type of energy, and help to fuel your brain and body, but there’s also no added taste. It makes your coffee or matcha wonderfully creamy. Check them out at PerfectKeto.com and use the code BALANCED for 20% off at Perfect Keto; and their sister site, Equip Foods.
5. What we’re thankful for this year [43:37]
Liz Wolfe: Ok, finally. Let’s talk about what we are thankful for this year. And I want you to go first, Diane.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Well you know what, I’m going to throw this out there. Because I’m sitting here in a room that, if I open the window, a lot of smoke would be coming into the room. And I’m just going to say that I’m super thankful for the fact that we haven’t had something super close to here that has torn through the city. Knock on wood, we haven’t had a major natural disaster. I’m not thankful that it has happened in so many places, especially around California. We’ve seen so much destruction and devastation from fires.
And you know, I am thankful that everyone I know has been safe. At least from bodily harm. So I’m very, very thankful for that. And I’m just really thankful to have a roof over my head. I know that’s maybe super corny, but I’m really thankful for that. I’m really thankful for the four walls that we have around us, and just to be living in a place that we love. And yeah, I don’t know. It’s just pretty simple. But that’s what I’m thankful for. And you?
Liz Wolfe: Alright. Well, I am; this is going to sound a little bit roundabout. But, like many people, I think I’ve been very preoccupied with some of what’s gone on in this country politically. I feel like this has kind of been, the last couple of years, an awakening to some of the more troubling things that have always existed, but maybe have kind of been brought to light in the United States and around the world. I’ve spent a lot of time just in worry, for not even the normal stuff. But for the world, and for what our future is going to look like. And feeling a little bit powerless to do anything about it.
But at the same time, now to make this about me; I feel like I can relate my personal journey of taking care of myself better, where doing my best to take care of my mental health and take care of my physical health, and give myself a lot of grace so that I can be a better mom so that I can raise someone that maybe can figure out better than I can how to make an impact on the world.
So kind of embracing my chance to do that as a mom of a little one this year has been a really, really enlightening journey. And it was a really good moment when I kind of realized that all of this is connected. So I’m very grateful for that. And I hope that made sense. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: It did.
Liz Wolfe: Good. Alright, well that’s it for this week folks. You can find me, Liz, at http://realfoodliz.com/ and you can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com. Join our email lists for free goodies and updates that you don’t find anywhere else on our website or on the podcast. While you’re on the internet, leave us an iTunes review. See you next week.