Coconut oil, raw whole milk, sprouted flour, nourishing trad

I'm not familiar with Nourishing Traditions but I know exactly what you mean about feeling like you're eating so healthy you can eat all you want and then packing on the pounds. I've done the same thing. So I'm learning now about portion control and calorie counting and it's helping me choose better how much I eat of all this good stuff.

I'm not familiar with Nourishing Traditions either, but I do try to include healthy "super foods" like coconut oil, honey, flaxseed, etc...and yes, it's very tough to balance "healthy" with calories. I'm trying to add more fiber now, and it's daunting for the same reasons. Last week I was over my calorie budget all week while trying to figure out the whole fiber thing (I'd prefer to get more from food rather than "empty" fiber replacements).

I think it really all just comes down to moderation, just like with everything else. Luckily, many of the super-foods are dense calories, so less goes farther in terms of being filling....

I hadn’t heard of that book before, but I have recently been trying to incorporate foods like coconut oil, ancient grains, and chia and flax seeds into my diet because I believe they are important for my long-term health. And yeah, I’ve definitely noticed that these very healthy foods aren’t necessarily all that great for my weight.

The way I deal with it is to try to consume these foods in moderation, and to plan my meals and snacks ahead of time. I think that planning for the extra calories is a huge help in sticking to my daily calorie goal. Like, one of my favourite meals has farro in it, which is pretty high in calories. So, when I know that that’s what I’m having for dinner, I’ll make sure I exercise enough that day so that I don’t go over my calorie goal. (I’m also a big granola lover, but I make sure to only put 2 tablespoons of granola on my Greek yogourt when I have it for a snack or for breakfast.)

I know that planning all your food ahead of time can be annoying, but for me it is the only way to stay on track with my calories while also getting all the important nutrients from these foods. So that's my advice (pretty much the same as what others have said): planning and moderation.

Ya I bought a weight watchers cook book and made some delicious granola that ended up being about 100 calories a teaspoon, that was the end of that, watching those calories keeps me on track. One morning i thought I will just eat a bowl of this low calorie cereal and peaches, and it ended up being way more calories than expected, then I had to watch it the rest of the day, so now I always count the calories first.

The book Nourishing Traditions is written by Sally Fallon and the Weston Price Foundation, which advocates going back to our ancestral/unprocessed and natural food, google the WPF and Sally Fallon, pretty interesting and insightful! But yes, we are a culture of volume and abundance in this country and that type food is nutrient and calorie dense so we have to be careful. I fell into the same trap with the homemade granola, love the stuff with almond milk!

Has anyone ever heard of the book "Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox" by Kate Rheaume-Bleue? It also talks about the health benefits of animal fats, particularly from grass-fed animals, and discusses how the introduction of mass-produced, processed foods has led to the drastic increase in a number of health problems. It's a really well-written book, and easy to understand. The author isn't a doctor or anything, but she does reference a number of scholarly articles on the topic. I highly recommend it! (Although it doesn't really touch on how eating too much of this stuff can affect your weight.)

I try to live as close to it as possible, but sometimes I'm overwhelmed with everything.

I usually eat Ezekiel products if I'm eating grains, and always soak my legumes. My cheffie fiance refuses to let me soak on the counter overnight (he's convinced that I'll get food poisoning), but I soak in the fridge with some apple cider vinegar.

I try to eat only whole-milk dairy, raw when possible. I've garnered an (un?)healthy obsession with goats' milk: yogurt, chevre, raw aged cheese...Om nom nom nom.

And I try to incorporate coconut oil into my diet when I think of it.

It's a challenge, though. The biggIest thing I've learned was, like most above, to be in control of my portion sizes. Just because bread is made from sprouted, organic, whole-grain flour doesn't mean I can eat the whole loaf with pastured butter. Even though I REALLY want to.

I'm really curious about soaking legumes in vinegar. (I assume you mean a little vinegar in the water.) Do the beans end up tasting like vinegar? I've heard that cooking with anything acidic will make beans remain hard - do yours turn out tender?

bump

Jamie, zee fiber comes from zee dark green plants and zee berries. They are low in zee calories.

Indeed they do...but all fiber is not the same. :-) Soluble fiber is what I need more of (for more/healthy bile production), so fruit, for sure, but also from oatmeal, flaxseed, lentils, beans - stuff that packs a pretty nutrient-dense punch. And since I just decided to up my intake last week, I wasn't prepared, which led to too-high calorie counts. Although I still lost a pound or so, which was a nice surprise.

I eat this bread made from flax seed
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/breads/r/flaxbasicfoc.htm
I cut it into nine pieces which means each slice has 8g fibre and 250 cal. But, it really fills you up ... that contains almost 1/4 cup of flax seed per slice.

I also make sure to eat on bean-based meal per day (1/2 cup of beans typically has about 100 cal and 10-15 g fibre) and lots of raw veggies.

Also, I replace rice in my meals with red lentils. they are really delicious and so high in fibre. 1/4 cup is 50 cal and has 7 g fibre. they are so creamy tasting you think they are refined carbs.

If I miss out on my lentils, I will take a tbsp of chia seed in water which has 11 g fibre and 100 cal

Eating like this it is really easy to consume over 30 or more g of fibre and still stay within my calories.

Another benefit .... by the time you eat all that fibre you are very full

I'll have to check out those red lentils - thanks! I've been adding more beans (though one can only eat so much!), and I've got apples for snacks, which is good soluble fiber. I also bought flaxseeds that I've been grinding a teaspoon or two at a time and adding to things (sometimes even just apple juice or cottage cheese) when I'm running short on fiber...so this week, I'm doing much better. I haven't tried chia seeds...yet.

Which kind of proves everyone's point, right? Planning & moderation is key.