olive oil

The ketogenic diet is hugely popular and with good reason; it’s been shown to reduce inflammation, improve depression and anxiety, curb epileptic seizures and help people lose weight. It can be incredibly healing, especially for those with diabetes, mood disorders, Alzheimer’s and gut infections. However, in following along on social media and seeing the huge explosion of this way of eating, I’ve also seen a lot of ways people kind of botch it. I’ve decided to share five things people do wrong when going keto because I’m seeing these mistakes repeatedly. NOT ENOUGH VEGGIES I see so many people avoiding vegetables on keto. Here’s the thing: keto can be a very healthy and well balanced diet. But you know what the backbone of keto is that people don’t realize? VEGETABLES. Veggies should make up the bulk of every ketogenic plate of food. Vegetables are loaded with so many vitamins, minerals…

As I write this, I’m well into my third trimester at almost 36 weeks. My c-section is scheduled for next week so I thought it would be the perfect time for a third trimester update. Read why I have to have a c-section here. This pregnancy has been different from my first in so many ways. When I got pregnant with Everett, I had a miscarriage six months prior. I was terrified of miscarrying again. I ran to the bathroom constantly to make sure I wasn’t spotting, which is how my miscarriage started. I bled for two weeks before miscarrying. It was torture. When I started spotting with Everett, I was convinced I was having a miscarriage. I was devastated. I cried hysterically. I felt gutted and terrified, like I’d never be able to have a child. But the cause of the bleeding was never identified, and I continued to…

This 20 minute gluten-free shrimp, artichoke, spinach & tomato pasta came about when I felt too lazy to make lunch. I’m pregnant, I work from home and I really just felt like walking up to Chipotle. This is the danger of living within walking distance of a Chipotle. Wanting it ALL the time. Eating ALL the Chipotle. But I persevered. I got my ass up and opened my fridge and stared in for a solid seven minutes. My toddler was running around in his winter boots (it’s August, by the way) and our amazing sitter was chasing him. I tend to look at random ingredients until some sort of plan forms in my brain. I had frozen shrimp and artichokes, spinach that was just beginning to wilt, I always keep brown rice and quinoa pasta in my pantry, Ya’ll know I always have butter. I can’t live without it. If…

I woke up yesterday with an incredibly sore throat and feeling generally run down. I had a pretty relaxing Saturday night – my best friend Jennifer came over and we made horrible Christmas cookies that were about as hard as a collection of rocks and Scott, Jenn and I ordered sushi. It got worse throughout the day but I was determined to meal prep! The worst days of any illness are from 3-5 (I didn’t make this up, my son’s pediatrician told me) so I didn’t want to be even more run down, snotting everywhere while trying to make my family lunch. I was going to power through this meal prep! Here I am: living proof that if I can take an hour to meal prep while I feel like shit, you can do it too, friends! You’ve GOT this! This is definitely one of my lazier meal preps but…

Last weekend my husband and I got to head to New York to go to DragCon. He works for Jeffree Star, who had a massive fuzzy pink booth at the event, did a huge meet and greet and an amazing, inspiring panel which I absolutely loved. We’ll get into all of that in this two part re-cap of our weekend in New York. New York has such amazing food and so many delicious, healthy restaurants have popped up since the last time I was there. While I didn’t get to check out every spot I wanted to in one weekend, we got to go to some amazing places. The first night we did a group dinner at Trattoria Dell’Arte; since it was my first time meeting most of the people there and because it was really dark in the private room we were in, I didn’t take any pictures. I…

Growing up in an unstable environment with a violent, drug addicted mom unfortunately primed my brain for anxiety. But there’s is so much we can do to mitigate its effects, including taking exercise, therapy and meditation. One of my favorite ways to reduce anxiety is through natural remedies – and these are the BEST supplements for anxiety! I have had anxiety for most of my life. Not my adult life, mind you. My ENTIRE life. Literally as far back as I can remember. Unfortunately, it’s only gotten worse over the years, particularly when I was 18, then when I was 21, it was at its absolute worst. I’m 29 now (even though I think I’m 19) and have a great handle on it, but it’s not without some serious effort, which includes taking the best supplements for anxiety. It also includes eating well, avoiding gluten is crucial for me, I…

This caprese shrimp lentil pasta was SO DELICIOUS. I never knew about lentil pasta either, but yes, it’s now a thing. I’m really loving all the healthy, gluten-free alternatives that are coming out. And while gluten-free alternatives often get a bad rap for being overly processed and full of junk, depending on the brand you get, this lentil pasta contains at most two ingredients: lentil and quinoa, and sometimes just lentil. Both are healthy, whole foods! No additives, no preservatives, no sketchy ingredients. But I have a confession. Until I made this pasta, I didn’t really like lentils. They don’t have a ton of flavor and even though they have a decent amount of protein for a plant-based food, they never had as much (or a complete amino acid profile) when compared to, say, chicken or salmon. So I never ate them. But I was in Whole Foods the other…