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Dear Fat,

 

I remember the 90s.  I remember Susan Powter and the fat-free craze.  I remember Snackwells.  I remember dry toast, plain baked potatoes, and screaming at my mom for cooking onions in a tablespoon of olive oil.  I remember fat-free yogurt, pretzels, cheese (what?), ice cream.  I remember thinking Red Vines were a health food because they were fat free.  I know you remember it too.

 

Thank god those days are over.  Fat, I'm sorry you had to spend any time in exile.  

 

I'm on day 11 of my first Whole30, and before today I used to hide my love for mayo like a dirty little secret.  Folks, today I'm coming out of the closet.  Fat, I am in love with you.  I love you in all your glorious forms (except partially hydrogenated and massively processed; also, sorry canola, but we're through; butter, see you in 20 days, if you're lucky).  

 

I am obsessed with Melissa Joulwan's mayo. http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2010/06/03/the-secret-to-homemade-mayo-patience/  I dream about my homemade, nutty-smelling, definition-of-savory ghee.  I could eat an avocado with a spoon, and do.  A dollop of pesto in my morning omelette delights me like nothing else.  Sweet potatoes, diced and roasted in coconut oil, rock my world.  Sunshine sauce is my jam ("jam" like "rad thing I love," but I suppose "jam" like "jelly" too).  

 

Fat, how did I live without you for so long?  Talk about insanity.  As far as I'm concerned, you make the world go round, make life worth living, and may be the key to world peace.  Well, maybe not.  But you get my point.  Fat, I'll never hide my love for you again.  See you soon.

 

Sincerely,

Caroline

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I'm on day 26 and have been feeling the same way! I'm 32 and remember those days well. Chicken Helper? Totally fine - it's low fat! I STILL remember seeing Susan Powter on some talk show in the summer with a giant blob of hardened fat. Gross.

 

And THANK YOU for mentioning pesto in eggs. Eggs and I are on the outs right now. I have a bunch of basil in the fridge, and maybe that will bring us back together.

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Ohhh how I remember those days!! I remember following a high carb low fat diet huge bowl of oatmeal in the morning a dry poached chicken breast sandwich at lunch, rice cakes for snack, and a MASSIVE salad with 1 T of olive oil in the dressing--I had that salad in the biggest pyrex bowl possible--I think it is a 4 qt? Course now, I still have a salad in that bowl, but I have yummy dressings made with my homemade mayo, and I am not afraid of fats anymore! I love fat too! There I said it! I think it could be it's own food group and I would be pleased as punch--remember the 4 squares? When eggs were dairy cause they were in the dairy case at the store? 

 

Growing up, my mom was a fat phobe--she was 5'7 and (gulp) 97 pounds. She smoked 3 packs of cigs a day, drank coffee and only ate once a day. She had a heart attack in '76 and gained 40 pounds and spent the rest of her life griping about her weight. I took after my grandmothers and I was short and 'good peasant stock' as my husband calls it. Mom would limit what I could eat, and I lived on a 900 cal diet for YEARS until I moved out and could get my own food, and of course, that horribly backfired. I used to sneak butter, would pick the giblets out of (cold) gravy the morning after Christmas and thanksgiving. My mom used to ride me about how big my butt was and that even when I was born, the dr said that it was the biggest butt he had ever seen (where was J Lo when I was growing up?) and I had a horrible self image. Still do at times--still really don't like what I see in the mirror. BUT mom would eat mayo out the jar, eat butter on her meat and I wasn't ever allowed. I remember the first time I had a blue cheese butter on a steak and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. 

 

Wow--didn't mean to go off on a tangent--but YES I am so glad I can embrace fat and not fear it anymore!

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I LOVE FAT!

 

I hate when I bring something for lunch to work with lots of mayo in it and people are like, EW. First of all, its so rude to criticize other peoples lunches. Second, my mayo is a lot better than your "healthy" wheat bread sandwich, thankyouverymuch!

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lol, I remember working in a hospital in the early nineties and all the staff getting talks by the dietician to switch us on the delights of canola oil and being told we should advise our patients on this issue...(and I am a physiotherapist...)

years of low fat  and vegetarian eating ensued (and lack of iron, lack of energy, anxiety, low blood sugars) until now and wow the difference! I am so over my guilt now, and am loving my coconut oil, avocado, tallow, whole eggs, healthy meat and am fitter and stronger and happier than I was in my twenties. thanks you Whole30 and thank you primal/paleo people

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What's funny is if you eat a brownie... people don't freak out... they get all conspiratorial or competitive:  I wish I could have a brownie, that looks yummy blah blah blah

 

But if you lick a spoon of mayonnaise, eat a handful of macadamia nuts or eat a whole avocado with a spoon they look at you as though you have snorted pixie sticks and / or will die of a heart attack in the next 30 minutes.

 

I was reading the nomnom paleo site and thought to myself LARD?  You are not cooking with lard.... old brainwashing is pervasive.

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SpinSpin - I fell terrible for my sisters (who are 10 years+ older then me) because they were late teens / early twenties in the 70s.  The crazy diets they did to stay hippie thin (not to mention cigarettes) really messed up their metabolism I'm sure.  I wasn't immune, but I never had the willpower to do the grapefruit diet, cambridge diet, eat the AIDS candy (no really, that's what it was called... this is before anyone had heard the letters HIV).  I would happily eat cereal and macaroni and cheese all day instead...

 

I'm really sorry your mom's insecurities were shared with you that way.  Recovering from the messages of our childhood is a llifelong process... and you're obviously doing great!

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anyone remember the bread diet? I must have been about 20, so this is 30 years ago. one day only bread (dry) and next day "normal" diet. OMG - unbelievable......can't say I lasted long on that but it was only one of many crazy diets back in the day and I am sure there still are crazy diets around.

another reason to love paleo, it's not a diet, though some people seem to think so. I have had all sorts of comments like- that's the raw meat diet! you must eat A LOT of meat, that can't be good for you, all that fat - how can you be so slim etc etc ;)

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Yeah ladies!  Go Team Fat.  I think we should make t-shirts. 

 

Yeah @SaraP!  Pesto + eggs = who knew?  Delicious.  Just had some this morning.  I made chicken sausage/egg muffins (saute onion, peppers, tomato, diced chicken sausage, and whatever leftover veg you have, let cool a bit, mix with 10-12 whisked eggs, and scoop with a 1/4 c. measuring cup into greased muffin tins.  Bake at 350 for 18-20 mins et voila!  Portable omelette!), and put a dollop of pesto on top of each one.  Scrumptious.    

 

Yay fat.

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anyone remember the bread diet? I must have been about 20, so this is 30 years ago. one day only bread (dry) and next day "normal" diet. OMG - unbelievable......can't say I lasted long on that but it was only one of many crazy diets back in the day and I am sure there still are crazy diets around.

another reason to love paleo, it's not a diet, though some people seem to think so. I have had all sorts of comments like- that's the raw meat diet! you must eat A LOT of meat, that can't be good for you, all that fat - how can you be so slim etc etc ;)

 

 

Well, obviously, you're so slim because you eat all that raw meat and fat with nothing else...I seriously get mad when people immediately bash how I'm eating and the next breath tell me how great I look, and how on earth did I get like that?

 

Riiiiiiiiiight.

 

The best, though, is when I have to buy a new belt because I've already had to punch two holes in it (and I've only lost 10 lbs on the scale, but apparently more size than I thought I had!). Or when my pescatarian sister realized that, really, she and I actually eat a lot of the same foods...I just add beef to them! Roasted sweet potatoes, all kinds of strange (to the SAD diet folks who eat corn and green beans) veggies...

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Yeah ladies!  Go Team Fat.  I think we should make t-shirts. 

 

Yeah @SaraP!  Pesto + eggs = who knew?  Delicious.  Just had some this morning.  I made chicken sausage/egg muffins (saute onion, peppers, tomato, diced chicken sausage, and whatever leftover veg you have, let cool a bit, mix with 10-12 whisked eggs, and scoop with a 1/4 c. measuring cup into greased muffin tins.  Bake at 350 for 18-20 mins et voila!  Portable omelette!), and put a dollop of pesto on top of each one.  Scrumptious.    

 

Yay fat.

 lol, love the t- shirts idea and I am going to try those muffins, thanks

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Yay!  I can come out of the mayo closet!!  I too am obsessed:  WF mayo goes on everything and -- dare I say it? -- sometimes just straight into my mouth. 

 

I've always hated mayonnaise -- ewww, you put mayo on a tuna salad sandwich, gross -- but I made some for this, my first Whole30, so I could make salad dressing.  Made the mistake of tasting it before mixing up the salad dressing, OHMYOHMY!

 

Years and years ago, I heard a nutritional lecture by a man whose name I unfortunately can no longer remember, who said something to the effect of "Your brain is composed of fat, your nerves need fat for smooth linings, your skin needs fat . . . . Do you realize how dangerous a low-fat diet is, especially in a cold climate?"  It was so against the flow, it just stuck in my brain, though until now, I never made the switch.  Shall we do the fat dance together?  Jiggly, jiggly!!!  B)

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I got a nice pesto recipe from Mark Sisson's Primal Easy Meals and now adapt it to use what I have around

in terms of different nuts and different greens.

1 cup pistachio nuts (or macademia, or pine nuts or walnuts)

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon (or more to taste) lemon juice

1 garlic clove

1/4 c loosely packed mint leaves (or parsley, or basil or cilantro)

some salt

blend it all in food processor and it's done!

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I got a nice pesto recipe from Mark Sisson's Primal Easy Meals and now adapt it to use what I have around

in terms of different nuts and different greens.

1 cup pistachio nuts (or macademia, or pine nuts or walnuts)

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon (or more to taste) lemon juice

1 garlic clove

1/4 c loosely packed mint leaves (or parsley, or basil or cilantro)

some salt

blend it all in food processor and it's done!

will try this

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I do something very similar to EricaV.  Last time, I used about 1/2 c. raw almonds (I know they are not the preferred nut on Whole30 but I love the way they taste).  Threw those in my Cuisinart miniprep with about 3 cloves of raw garlic, chopped, some red pepper flakes, salt, and lemon zest (just a touch!).  Whiz that up until everything is ground.  Then I threw in three large handfuls of basil--the more the better.  It was all the leaves from one large bunch.  Whiz again!  As I was processing the basil, I drizzled in about 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil.  I like to add acid as I use the pesto so that it stays a bright green color in the fridge.  Whisking a dollop of pesto with a little lemon juice or vinegar makes a great salad dressing.  Last night I tossed some steamed green beans with that and it was delectable.  Delectable!

 

Oh, so happy that everyone is as enthused about fat as I am.  (TOTALLY not above licking a mayo-covered spoon.)

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I got a nice pesto recipe from Mark Sisson's Primal Easy Meals and now adapt it to use what I have around

in terms of different nuts and different greens.

1 cup pistachio nuts (or macademia, or pine nuts or walnuts)

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon (or more to taste) lemon juice

1 garlic clove

1/4 c loosely packed mint leaves (or parsley, or basil or cilantro)

some salt

blend it all in food processor and it's done!

 

It never occurred to me to try using mint for pesto. I think I'm going to have to try this as I have spearmint in the backyard trying to take over.

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Read this thread yesterday and went home and covered my stir-fry veg & steamed cod in home made tartar sauce (made from home made mayo) and this morning woke up feeling great and really energised.  And for lunch I've got salad with dreamy avocado dressing...what's not to love about fat?

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This thread made me smile and giggle. I NEED a t-shirt that says "I love fat". Now I'm going to hear "fat bottomed girls" by Queen all day. Not because I believe fat makes anyone fat-bottomed, but that's just the first song that came into my head when I was reading the thread :P

 

Thanks ladies for the morning fun, and the Ode to Fat. "fat eating girls we make the rocking world go round"

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I have been going a bit crazy on the pesto making these last few days- the mint is growing like mad in my garden so that gets a lot of use. the parsley is starting to grow and I will have to wait till summer for my basil (Yum!). I often add in a bit of rocket and usually use lemon juice to taste.

it just seems to go so well with all sort of things....

I also made a lovely mushroom sauce with coconut oil, mushrooms and spring onion, coconut milk and apple cider vinegar (the recipe had masala wine but no alcohol...) this went over the sautéed veges and roast beef- so good ;)

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this went over the sautéed veges and roast beef- so good ;)

 

 

It occured to me that during the fat free crazy they added tons of sugar and fake crap to make things taste better fat free.  So maybe if I add a bit of fat to things I previously thought - ick - that might help.

 

It totally does.  When you are brainwashed just steam all your vegetables and eat them plain it can be a chore to eat them.  I used to think things like asparagus and cabbage were beyond gross.  But oh how much I love them now - just with a little bit of creatively used fat!  Heck even a few drops of ghee or olive oil now have made all the difference...

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@lexes42- I agree- total brainwashing- surely still happening out there if I see the lunch table at work with the low fat sugar filled yogurts.

the flavours of our meals are sooo good with that little extra fat, aren't they- coconut oil must be my favourite- in fact I am just getting a 20 litre bucket this week for a good price- some of us get together and order wholesale extra virgin from Sri Lanka ;)

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