Emmerich - Quick and Easy Ketogenic Cooking: Meal Plans and Time Saving Paleo Recipes to Inspire Health and Shed Weight

First Published in 2016 by Victory Belt Publishing Inc. Copyright 2016 Maria Emmerich All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1628601008 (paperback)
978-1628601107 (ebook)
The author is not a licensed practitioner, physician, or medical professional and offers no medical diagnoses, treatments, suggestions, or counseling. The information presented herein has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Full medical clearance from a licensed physician should be obtained before beginning or modifying any diet, exercise, or lifestyle program, and physicians should be informed of all nutritional changes.

The author/owner claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.
Front and Back Cover Photography by Hayley Mason and Bill Staley Interior Design by Yordan Terziev and Boryana Yordanova Meal Plans by Craig Emmerich RRD 0116 SP_ver_c TABLE OF CONTENTS LETTER TO THE READER If you feel overwhelmed with work, life, family, and responsibilities and cooking sounds like another job, please know, I am a busy working parent just like many of you. Before kids, I didnt understand the difficulty of finding time to prepare ketogenic meals, and when my nutrition clients would complain that they did not have time to eat healthy, I would think, It is easy... I do it daily. I worked all the time and still was able to find time to put keto meals together. Now, though, I know how hard it can be. On November 16, 2011, life threw me for a loop.

My husband, Craig, and I received an e-mail telling us that we could pick up our two baby boys from Ethiopia. Three days later we were on a plane, and life was never the same. We arrived home in the U.S. on the night before Thanksgiving. Lets just say that Thanksgiving was anything but turkey and gravy. (If you would like to watch a video of our journey, you can find it here: http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/adoption-first-video-of-our-family/ .) It was the most magnificent yet the most difficult time of my life.

All of a sudden I was responsible for a one-year-old and a toddler who were scared of everything newand everything was new to them. I remember them crying the first time they were in the bathtub. They must have been thinking, Why is this lady putting me in a huge hole and filling it with water? They didnt have a bathtub at the orphanage. Because every experience was new to the boys, I held Kai in a baby carrier at all times while holding Micahs hand. Try cooking with one hand! Yep, that was what I did. But it was important because the boys had never had such a sense of security before, and I needed to make up for them not having had anyone.

Im not complainingI would give anything to hold baby Kai in a carrier againbut it was an eye-opening experience for me to realize how hard it is to make healthy meals while prioritizing family. But it can be done. Even with all these challenges, cooking one-handed with another little one strapped to my chest, all while running a business, I did it. Which leads me to yet another reason why I love this book. Many of the recipes can be made with one hand! I love cooking. There is nothing I adore more on a rainy day than spending it in the kitchen with the radio on.

I say rainy day because on beautiful sunny days I prefer to be outside in my kayak or on my bicycle; sunny days are when my slow cooker is on (and there are many slow cooker recipes in this cookbook!). But I understand that we all have different passions, and that is why this cookbook rules! Even a novice cook can make these recipes. And if you prefer to be outside like I do, you will love the bonus chapter, which shows you how to smoke foods outside! So that was my goal with this cookbook: to provide quick and easy recipes that anyone can make, no matter how busy you are and whether youre a novice cook or love to spend your free time in the kitchen. But most of all, I wanted to provide delicious, nutritious recipes that can help you get into and stay in ketosis and improve your health. Maria MY STORY Until I was a sophomore in high school, I never thought much about my weight. That changed one day when I tried on my friends cute jacket, thinking that we were about the same size.

It quickly became obvious that the jacket was too small for me when one of my classmates started loudly singing Fat Girl in a Little Coat to the tune of Fat Guy in a Little Coat from the movie Tommy Boy . Everyone started laughing, and I was mortified. That moment inspired me to make changes to improve my health. I started working hard to get enough exercise and eat what I thought were healthy foods, following the food pyramid and government guidelines, which meant lots of carbohydrates and whole grains. I studied exercise and nutrition in college and took pride in doing everything right when it came to my healththat is, I thought I was doing everything right. Immediately after college, I developed severe irritable bowel syndrome and acid reflux.

I couldnt even drink water without getting reflux. My doctor suggested medication for the symptoms, but I wanted to find a real solution. Then I remembered taking my dog, Teva, to the veterinarian when I was in high school. Shed been losing her hair in patches, and the first question the vet asked me was, What are you feeding her? Not one of the doctors Id seen over the years had asked me about my diet, and I started pondering why. Why are drugs, not nutrition, physicians first choice of therapy? I dug deeper into this subject and eventually looked closer at a low-carb, no-grain diet. I decided to cut out most carbs and all grains, and my symptoms immediately began to improve.

That was the first step on my path to a ketogenic diet, but I wouldnt take the next step for many years, and it took some difficult times to get there. In 2007, I was working as a rock-climbing guide and loving it when the economy took a nosedive. My husband, Craig, lost his job, and our primary source of income vanished. With that loss, we had to put off our dream of adopting children. It was devastating: we had no money, no insurance, and a heavy burden on our shoulders that challenged our marriage in ways we couldnt have imagined. But one of the things I love most about Craig is his perseverancea trait we have in commonand we pushed back.

I decided to become a nutritionist and started working for myself. I didnt have a lot of clients at first, so I started self-publishing books in my free time to help supplement our income. We also started tightening our budget, having date night at home and checking out movies from the local library. These prudent measures and our willingness to tighten our belts saved our finances and our marriage from devastation. And things got better. Craig got another job, and I took on more clients as a nutritionist.

I loved helping my clients find better health through improved dietsomething that I still found doctors never considered. But in my work with people who had severe metabolic syndrome and diabetes, I found that their blood sugar levels werent improving enough despite limiting carbs and sugars. I remembered learning in college that since the body cant store protein, it turns excess protein into sugar, and I decided it was time to limit not just carbs but also protein. In other words, I stumbled onto a low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat dieta ketogenic dietand it made all the difference for my clients, and for me.