Holley - The primal low-carb kitchen: comfort food recipes for the carb conscious cook

As I was doing research for my blog, looking for people sharing quality information about low-carb nutrition, I found Peace, Love and Low Carb and immediately connected with Kyndra Holleys amazing story of triumph over weight and health that reminded me of my own successful transformation journey. I immediately connected with her approacha clean low-carb diet that doesnt include processed foods and doesnt sacrifice taste. After losing 180 pounds on the Atkins diet in 2004, I eventually came to realize that the processed foodsAtkins bars, low-carb pastas, low-carb breads and morewere clearly not healthy over the long term, and although they were low-carb, I was still feeding into my carb addiction. Thats when I adopted the same philosophy Kyndra shares in this book. Choosing the highest quality grass-fed meats, organic vegetables, high-fat dairy, nuts and seeds, and superior dietary fats like grass-fed butter, coconut oil and lard were the keys to elevating my game even more on my own low-carb diet. Ive been sharing this philosophy with my own readers ever since.

With the meteoric rise in popularity of ancestral-based Paleo and Primal diets over the past few years, many of us longtime low-carb enthusiasts have gone beyond simply looking at limiting carbohydrates and now desire to improve the quality of the food we are consuming. This means our healthy low-carb lifestyle is comprised of real, whole, nourishing foods that would be recognized by our great-grandmas as food. Its a logical next step for anyone who has consumed a low-carb diet to gradually begin to clean up the foods they are consuming to the best quality possible they can afford. Understandably, it can be a hard road for many because of budget constraints, societal pressure about food and the familiarity with purchasing foods that are convenient and easy. What Kyndra has done in The Primal Low-Carb Kitchen is empower people eating a low-carb diet to make the lateral shift over to eating a Paleo or Primal nutritional template with a low-carb emphasis. Her focus is on real, whole, unprocessed foods, and thanks to her foodie background, low-carb readers making the transition to a more Primal way of eating will see tremendous positive changes in their health without missing any of their favorite comfort foods.

Because Kyndras been there herself, she demonstrates how simple the low-carb to Primal-low-carb shift can be. It helps that she has an eye for making comforting recipes that will have your mouth watering and yet be so very good for you too. You know its time to clean up your low-carb diet, or perhaps begin it in earnest on the right foot. When youre ready to give it a shot, this is your go-to manual for making it happen. Lay aside all the excuses for not doing it, and let Kyndra pass along the been there, done that wisdom she has amassed. Relax, enjoy the process, be kind to yourself and never forget you and your health are worth the effort.

YOU CAN DO IT! Jimmy Moore author of Keto Clarity and Cholesterol Clarity and host of The Livin La Vida Low-Carb Show

I wasnt eating nutrient-dense, whole foods, and I hadnt completely cut out grains and gluten. I was only concerned with the carbohydrate count and not with the overall nutritional content of the food I was eating. I was still eating a lot of highly processed, packaged foods, full of ingredients that I couldnt even begin to pronounce. I pretty much survived off bacon cheeseburgers without the bun and salads topped with so much ranch dressing that there was no lettuce to be seen. I was one of those people that helped give low-carb diets a bad rap. Despite my poor nutrition, the weight came off fairly effortlessly, and I wasnt even working out.

This experience gave me a false sense of what living a healthy lifestyle actually looked like. I equated health with weight and felt I was being healthy simply because I was losing weight. Throughout all the years I spent being unhappy and overweight, I tried every fad diet out there. I was always looking for a quick fix. I was enamored by celebrity fad diets, infomercials, magic pills, lotions, potions and promises of a 24-hour fix. I was willing to try everything except eating healthy and working out.

Then one day, almost out of nowhere, I woke up. I started to see food differently. I realized what I had already known all along. I didnt put on all this weight overnight, and I certainly wasnt going to lose it all overnight, either. If I wanted results, I was going to have to put in the work. I knew it would take sheer determination and an abundance of willpower to make it happen.

I finally felt ready to commit to change. My views on food had begun to shift, and I became increasingly aware of what I was putting in my body. The days of bunless burgers and only counting carbs were behind me. That is not to say that I dont still love a good bunless burger with ranch dressing; I just eat other things in addition to that now, and when I want a dressing, I make it from scratch so that I know exactly what is in it. I love food. I always have.

I love eating food. I love photographing food. I even love just being around food. Food is one of the only things that can truly delight all of the senses at once. Whats not to love? Id been working in restaurants for more years than I like to account for, and that meant that I was constantly surrounded by my drug of choice. Even though I never worked in the kitchen at any of those restaurants, I spent a lot of time there because I loved watching the whole process unfold.

As a manager I got to see every step of the action. I got to check-in the delivery of fresh foods, watch them being prepped in the back kitchen, see them hit the line for the chefs to work their magic on, stand side by side with the food expeditor to be the final approval of quality, whisk the food away to the guests, watch them eat it and check back only to be met with oohs and aahs of how incredible their meal was. It is quite a visceral process. By working in a handful of fine dining establishments, I was exposed to ingredients and cooking techniques that I never knew existed. I grew up in a very meat and potatoes, salt and pepper home. All meat was cooked well-done, and ketchup was our only condiment.