Ahh... Fall

I have been on QUITE a bit of a hiatus, and I'm sorry.  I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry.  I promise I'll never leave you guys like that again, ok?  You can trust me.  I love you, please forgive me.

Now for the post!
Fall.  For most of us, that means out come the pea-coats, scarves, and that awesome hounds tooth vest you've been dying to break out since you found it at the very cusp of the season change.  The leaves turn and start to fall, Pumpkin Spice Latte's are in all of our hands (admit it, you love them), and life appears as if you've stepped into an LL Bean catalog.  Then we have our favorite state Florida, where it snows sometimes where the last time snow was here was in 1988, and the snow men we made were half mud, half ice; 80 degree weather is abundant all winter long, and the chances of us feeling that nice Autumn breeze require you to be in North Central, at least.  Then after you feel that nice crisp breeze, run inside and pray that hurricane season has passed and that wasn't a warning of impending doom.

The main attraction to Fall (besides the awesome color palette that everyone somehow is on the same page about), is the smells that are all around you.  We don't always get that here in the south, so this post is about bringing some of that scent into your home - fake it 'till you make it Florida!  Obviously, anyone can do this any where, and have your home smell like that Fall magic:

Literally the number one way to make your house smell like Holiday's is with Dehydrated orange slices.  Best part?  They can double as awesome ornaments for your tree or around your house!  This lady has a pretty good guide to doing it in your oven (its SO easy); the only thing I did differently is add a little bit of cinnamon and ground cloves to either side to make my house reek of all things Fall.  *note: it's important to turn them every hour or half hour; if not, they start to curve and it's not cute*

image courtesy of widowontheprarie.com

**Another trick?  The "I totally just made 8 dozen sugar cookies and you can't have any" trick.  Fool your friends into thinking you're a binge eater with a better body than them, and your house smells better.  Win win.**

HAPPY FALL!!!!
more to come soon...

Keto-tastic; Jumping on the bandwagon

So I recently had a pretty bad leg injury due to a not so great combination of a tree, a long night at work, and my car (RIP Suzuki).  As a result, I've had a lot of difficulty this past year getting back into the swing of things as far as exercise is concerned; it's nearly impossible for me to do more than three easy miles on the sedimentary bike.  Needless to say, I've put on a couple of pounds that I'm really not too proud of...

I've tried a couple of diets; tried to do Paleo (mostly because it was all over Pinterest and I wanted to be trendy too!) but everything that I found could not be successful unless there was at least a small amount of cardio performed at least 3-4 times a week....then I discovered what Keto or 'The Ketosis Diet" was.

It honestly was a little hard to fathom at first.  Coming from a once-upon a time vegan turned mostly veggie eater; it was incredibly difficult to make such a drastic change in my diet, and to go against everything that I've always heard to be "good" for you.  After the first week or so, and after my bout with the dreaded "carb flu" (I legit read about it and thought it was the dumbest thing in the world - it's not and it's real and it's AWFUL), I literally started seeing the weight just SHED off of me.

From what I understand, it's actually recommended by some doctors to severely obese people...like the kind that you just kind of have to stare at when driving past the Wal-Mart Plaza (sorry...), and for instance elderly individuals or diabetics with high insulin from or not from severe weight gain, that need to change things in their diets and fast, but can't just start running on a treadmill; you get the type of people this ad been geared toward.   Mind you, the most I've ever weighed was a little over 145 (for my size... that's pretty bad), and it still worked wonders for me; my energy levels were through the roof, my serotonin was actually working without artificially forcing it to - so it really is for everyone.

If you're interested in what this awesome magical lose weight diet called Keto is, I've listed a couple of links/blogs/other internet info for you to read more about it and get started!  I'll be posting some of my recipes through out my posts, so fair warning - your mouth will water if you like bacon.

Great beginners guide - http://josepharcita.blogspot.com/

http://www.reddit.com/r/keto - great for a support type team thing

Great quick-style food list (did you know that garlic, red peppers and onions have TONS of carbs in each little piece?!) - http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/

http://eatketo.com/ and http://cavemanketo.com/- AWESOME recipes

And of course the bad part... the keto flu and what to expect - the ONLY downfall, I swear!
http://elowcarbfoodlist.org/the-keto-flu-symptoms-and-relief/

This one is just for fun; you can get some GREAT recipes from here, mostly paleo, not so much keto, but still soooo good - http://urbanposer.blogspot.com/

Here's the newest Paleo one I found, but easily alterable to keto:  http://thedomesticman.com/

Good luck to everyone!  I'll post some more as I continue my journey, so go!  Keto on!