One of the more popular fad diets recently that has stuck around, other than the keto diet, has been the idea of intermittent fasting. People use intermittent fasting to improve their health, simplify their life, and lose weight. Some studies suggest that it may even help you live longer. Although, not many people know everything about it so below is a general overview of intermittent fasting.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you cycle between eating and fasting. There are no foods that you are supposed to avoid rather you choose when you are going to eat. People consider intermittent fasting to be an eating pattern rather than a diet because it isn’t a diet in the conventional sense since it doesn’t tell you what foods not to eat.

Intermittent Fasting Methods

There are lots of different ways that you can do intermittent fasting and all of them involve splitting the day or week into a cycle of fasting and eating periods. During the fasting periods you choose where you eat very little or nothing at all. Most people do nothing at all or they just do a green or red drink.

The most popular methods are:

• The 16/8 method: In this method you fast for 16 hours and then eat over the course of 8 hours. For example, only eating from 12-8pm. They key to this method is being consistent and not eating until 16 hours have past since the last time you ate.
• Eat-Stop-Eat: In this method you fast for 24 hours once or twice a week.
• The 5:2 diet: In this method you only consume 500-600 calories on two non-consecutive days during the week and then eat normally on the other 5 days.

All of these methods should cause weight loss as long as you don’t compensate by eating a lot more during the eating periods because the idea is you are trying to reduce your calorie intake. The most popular of the three methods is the 16/8 method because it is the simplest, easiest, and most sustainable for most lifestyles.

How Does It Affect Your Body?

When you fast, many things happen in your body at the cellular and molecular level. Here are some of the changes that occur in your body:

• Your body adjusts your hormone levels to make stored fat more accessible.
• Your cells initiate important repair processes and changes the expression of genes.
• The levels of growth hormone rise steeply sometimes increasing as much as 5-fold. This benefits for fat loss and muscle gain.
• Insulin sensitivity improves and levels of insulin drop significantly which helps make stored fat more accessible.
• When fasting your cells initiate cellular repair processes, including autophagy which is where cells digest and remove old proteins that build up in cells.
• There are changes in the function of genes that are related to longevity and protection against disease.

These changes at the hormone levels, gene expression, and cell function are responsible for the health benefits that come along with intermittent fasting.

Side Effects

Some evidence from studies suggests that intermittent fasting may not be as beneficial for women. Also, you should seek a medical consultation with your doctor before trying intermittent fasting if you:

• Have diabetes
• Have problems with blood sugar regulation
• Have low blood pressure
• Take medications
• Are underweight
• Have a history of eating disorders
• Are a woman trying to conceive
• Are pregnant or breastfeeding

This being said if you are healthy there is nothing dangerous about not eating if you are well-nourished overall.

Conclusion

Overall, if you are considering intermittent fasting you know your body best, so it is up to you to decide if this is something that would be good for your body and your lifestyle. Although, if you are considering it or still skeptical of it make sure and do your research! Do more than just read this article. If you have tried intermittent fasting comment below and tell us about your experience!

Most people who have used a sous-vide know that it can do wonders to meat. Although, not many people know or have tried other foods in the sous-vide, so my dad and I decided to sous-vide other foods. Here are our three favorite things that we sous-vided:

1. Potatoes & other vegetables

Maybe for some of you more experienced chefs sous-viding potatoes or vegetables just makes sense, but we were a little skeptical when we first started sous-viding vegetables. We were skeptical because we thought that it was just going to be like steaming the vegetables which you can do in the microwave in just a couple of minutes, so we thought that maybe sous-viding was just going to be more of a hassle. Although, as we started to figure out what vegetables we were going to do and looked at different recipes we found that we could do different root vegetables all together because they cook at the same temperature. If you can plan to have vegetables that all cook at the same temperature sous-viding them might be the way to go for you. We put seasoning in the bag while they cooked and I thought they turned out very well. They were soft and had good flavor. I think next time I might try frying them a little in the pan after just to give them some texture, but I know that we are definitely going to be doing root vegetables again! The next night we tried potatoes and then made them into mashed potatoes. They were absolutely amazing and I don’t think we are ever going to make mashed potatoes any other way again, so that should say something.

2. Rice

I never would have thought to do rice in the sous-vide, but it makes sense because you want the rice to be tender. We tried just plain rice and it tasted like plain rice does. Next, we want to try some sort of fancier rice like cilantro rice or put some herbs in the rice. We think that adding other flavors to the rice in the sous-vide will bring more flavor to the rice rather than cooking it on the stove and then adding the flavors because they will have more time to merry together in the sous-vide.

3. Eggs

When I first thought about sous-viding eggs I thought that they were going to turn out just like hard boiled eggs. But the more I researched and looked into different recipes I found that you can cook the eggs to whatever consistency you want. This means that if you want the eggs to be over easy, over medium, or over hard you can. It all just depends on the temperature and how long you leave the eggs in for. I don’t necessarily think that this will be a regular things that we sous-vide because it is so much quicker to cook eggs normally, but it is a fun treat to switch things up.

I hope we were able to open your eyes a little bit into the possibilities of what you can do with your sous-vide. You know how when the Instant Pot came out everyone went crazy for it? I have kind of gone crazy for the sous-vide like everyone went for the Instant Pot. I hope you try some of these other foods in your sous-vide. If you do try something other than meat please comment below and tell us all about your experience! Thanks!

Hey y’all! As most of you know, I am currently a college student at Utah Valley University. Today I wanted to tell a little story about the transition from cooking back home where I had full access to our family pantry to cooking out here at college where our pantry rarely has more than a couple boxes of cereal and some packets of ramen.

Growing up, my parents always talked to me about the importance of budgeting and spending my money wisely. Well, back home that was easy because rent was free, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were free, and my parents were very willing to help with any other reasonable purchases that I wanted to make. Really, the only things that I spent much money on back home were clothes and eating out. For example, I was able to fuel my obsession of crème brûlée (pictured below).

Coming out to college, I was shocked. Rent wasn’t free anymore. I had to buy whatever food I was going to eat, and my parents slowed down on helping me pay for things in an effort to instill better spending habits in me. I very quickly learned that eating out on a student budget is not possible. Well, I love food, and I especially love good food, so I knew that I had to find a way to eat well, and keep myself from going bankrupt, so I set out to become the best budget cook that I could become.

The first thing that I wanted to figure out was which foods were my friends, and which foods were my enemies. On the friends list, I found that eggs, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, and a few other foods really gave you a bang for your buck. For the enemy team, I learned that most seafood, premade meals (like bagged salads,) and name-brand items are pretty pricey. I also discovered that other foods like poultry and beef can be afforded on a budget, but it’s best to pair them with something like rice to help you eat less of the expensive item.

After calculating my monthly food budget, I figured that I would be able to spend about two dollars on every dinner. With that budget in mind, I set out to make the best dinner that I could. I decided that a chicken stir fry was the path I wanted to take. I started by cooking one chicken breast. I added a little bit of soy sauce and brown sugar to the skillet as the chicken cooked to give it a sauce. While the breast was cooking, I cooked some rice noodles until they were soft and tender. Once the chicken was mostly cooked and the rice noodles were ready, I added the noodles into the skillet with the chicken and added some vegetables from a frozen vegetable medley bag. After a few minutes, the stir fry was ready, and it was delicious…well it was definitely not my best chicken stir fry, but for the ingredients I had I thought it was pretty great! 

Now, to prove that good cooking can be cheap, let’s add up some prices: Chicken breast: $0.75, rice noodles: $0.25, vegetables: $0.50, soy sauce: $0.40, brown sugar: $0.10. For those of you who don’t want to add it all up, the total is right around $2.00!

I know that cooking on a budget can seem like a daunting task, but it’s possible! Focus on cheap ingredients, and make them the focus of your meals. Find the foods that are your friends and learn different ways to prepare them, and wait patiently for the day when you’ll have your own fully stocked super pantry!

What cheap meals do you love to make? Comment them below!

Hey everyone! As you all know, I have such a strong passion for food, and specifically cooking food. I’ve been an avid cook for the past ten years, and today, I wanted to talk a little bit about when and how I discovered my passion and why I’m still so passionate about it.

Growing up, we ate potatoes a lot in my house. At least 4 days a week, we would have some sort of potato dish for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Some of the regulars were mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, potato casserole, and of course, french fries. Now, all of those foods are delicious, but if there’s one potato dish that I really love, it’s hash browns. I remember countless mornings waking up to the smell of my mom’s famous hash browns, and every time as soon as I smelled them, I knew there was a good day ahead of me.

One day, about ten years ago, I decided that I wanted to learn how to make hash browns like my mom. I still remember to this day how excited my mom was when I told her that I wanted to join her next time she made them. The next morning, I woke up and found my mom in the kitchen. From there, we got into the cooking process. Before then, I never knew exactly how much went into cooking. As far as I was concerned, hash browns were no more than potatoes cut up into little pieces and then heated up a bit. Well boy was I wrong! My mom started by helping me cut the potatoes into little strips. She then had me stir the potatoes in a bowl of water. After that, we dried the potato strips and put them into a skillet with melting butter. We added in some spices and stirred the hash browns for a few minutes and then it was all done! 

I’ll be the first to admit that those hash browns were not the best hash browns that I have ever had, but I learned that day that I really loved and enjoyed cooking. From that day on, whenever I saw my mom cooking something that I’d never made before, I asked to join her. I have countless memories of my mom teaching me different kitchen tips, and I still remember all of the many life lessons that she somehow managed to teach me as we cooked together.

I think that one of the biggest reasons that I am still so passionate about cooking is the flood of happy memories that it brings back to me so often.To this day, every time I cook, I remember my mom and the positive impact that she’s had on me in my life.

So, to all the parents, children, and/or siblings that are reading this, take your children, parents, and or siblings and make some hash browns with them! Who knows? Maybe you will be able to start your own incredible cooking relationships! Tell us about your experiences of how you came to love food or of how you and someone bonded over food in the comments below!

Have you ever taken a bite of overcooked chicken or steak? You probably remember the bite because it isn’t pleasant eating poorly cooked meat. In most dishes, whether or not the meat is cooked right can make or break the dish, but in order to make the dish there are three key things to understand about the meat.

WHAT IS THE STAR OF YOUR DISH?

By pinpointing the start of your dish, you can determine how to choose the proper meat and cook it accordingly. For example, if you are making grilled steaks you probably want to a better cut of steak so that the steak shines. Although, if you were making something like stuffed bell peppers filled with chicken the chicken isn’t necessarily the start of the dish. I would be more worried about the stuffing as a whole and properly cooking the bell pepper. Overall, understanding what needs to shine in the dish in order to make it taste good is important because then you can choose and cook your choice of meat accordingly.

KNOW THE GRADE

There are eight different quality grades of meat: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Cutter & Canner. The grade of meat is based on the degree of marbling, or intramuscular fat, in the beef, and the maturity, or estimated age of the animal at the time of slaughter. Not every grade is sold at every grocery store. This means that sometimes it is harder to find nicer cuts of meat. There are also lots of videos on the internet about specific places and grocery stores where they recommend you should not be meat. One of the places that most people suggest to steer clear of when buying meat is Walmart. This is mainly because over the years Walmart has had a number of issues when it comes to the quality and safety of their fresh meat, especially the ground meat like hamburger. When it comes to meat, especially steaks, I tend to buy from Costco because their have nicer cuts of meat and have prime and choice quality grades of meat to choose from. At the end of the day understanding what time of meat you are buying will help add to the flavor profile of your dish.

TAKE TIME TO COOK THE MEAT PROPERLY

Depending on what dish you are cooking, the star of meat, and how much time you have will determine how you will want to cook the meat. Since the instant pot has come out that has been a popular way for people to cook dishes faster than using a crockpot. Also, a more recent technique that has become popular is sous-viding your meat which is cooking your meat in water until it gets to the desired temperature you want. You can also bake, grill, or sear your meat depending on what kind of flavor you want to give the meat. If you are having a barbeque or want more of a smoked flavor to your food you would probably use a grill. If you want your meat to stay tender you may consider using a sous-vide or a crockpot depending if you want the meat to be shredded or in one piece. Understanding the different techniques and how much time they take will help you determine which method to use to cook your meat properly for the dish.

If you are a more versed cook in the kitchen then this may already be common knowledge or second nature for you, but understanding your meat no matter what level chef you are will improve your dish more than you think. I encourage you all to keep these key things in mind the next time you are making a dish with meat. Comment below your experiences with cooking meat and what has helped you perfect your dishes!

In today’s society with the obesity levels at an all-time high and the pressures of social media telling us to skinny people forget to enjoy their food. Everyone wants to call themselves foodies because that is the “cool” thing to do, but they just eat certain foods that are popular right now. For example, how many gym goers actually look forward to and crave their protein shakes? Or how many people go to In-N-Out for the food without taking a picture to prove they were there? Now, I’m not trying to hate on the people that do this because if doing that stuff helps them live their best life then they should do it, but to me I choose to enjoy food, maintain a weight that I like, and feel good all at the same time. One of the keys to this is mindful eating.

In the video, he talks about how people overeat, eat without enjoying their food, eat unconsciously and with distractions. When you are not focused on your food and what you are eating you tend to overeat, especially if you are emotional. Have you ever been so crazy hungry that you scarfed down your whole meal as fast as you could and then continued to eat until it hurt, or just not realized you overate until after all of the food was gone? It’s painful, isn’t it? I hate that feeling and it usually makes me not want to eat for the rest of the day. This is where mindful eating comes into play.

In the video he offers four steps to eat mindfully. The first step is to observe what you are about to eat. Then the second step is to taste what you are eating. To do this you want to try to identify the flavors you are tasting. The third step is to bite. This means to chew the food and enjoy what it in your mouth. Taking the time to chew the food will also help your body to digest the food easier since it will be in smaller pieces rather than when you eat as fast as you can and forget to chew as much. The final step is to take a chill pill. This means taking the time to have a meal and relax while eating it, but if you don’t have the time still make an effort to sit down and focus on eating your food.

Mindful eating all comes back to slowing yourself down and focusing your attention on what you are eating. This process is based off of the Buddhist concept of practicing mindfulness, but many cultures around the world practice a similar thing to mindful eating. For example, consider the French people. Everyone has always wondered how the French people stay so skinny while eating bread and cheese all day, until the book called, “French Woman Don’t Get Fat” by Mireille Guiliano came out. In the book, she talks about how one of the ways that French people stay skinny is they take the time to enjoy their meals, which is what mindful eating is all about!

Although mindful eating might not get you exactly where you want to be with your fitness goals, I believe it can help you become a foodie. Being a foodie is all about enjoying your food and so is mindfulness! Anyways, I hope the video gave you some food for thought and that you try eating mindfully for your next meal. Comment below about your experiences with mindful eating!

Food can be any nutritious substance that people eat or drink in order to maintain life and growth. And a foodie is a person who has an interest in food. I think that every person is a foodie to some degree because we all have to take an interest in food to stay alive.

So, in order to grow as a foodie, it is important to go back to the basics of cooking and take it one step at a time. Here are some tips to help you get started on your journey as a foodie.

1. Read the recipe all the way through before starting to cook.

No matter how confident you are in your cooking skills or in a specific recipe it never hurts to read the recipe all the way through because it will limit your risk of making a simple mistake. Many people tend to find themselves skimming over recipes to get the basic idea and then they just start cooking. When you don’t read the recipe all the way through before you start to cook it makes it easier for little mistakes to occur because the recipes are written so exactly. Recipes are specific instructions that are usually time sensitive which makes it very important to do each step in order and for the amount of time specified.

2. Pick out the right produce and type of meat for the recipe you are cooking.

Cooking on a budget is important, but when it comes to picking out your produce and meat the cheapest option isn’t always the best option. Your produce and meat can make your break your meal. When it comes to produce make sure that what you are buying is in season and learn the tricks to find out whether or not it’s ripe. For example, you can tell an orange is ripe if it’s firm with no soft spots and has a thin, smooth skin. Also, the heavier the orange for its size is a sign that it is ripe. Then, when it comes to meat it is important to understand the grades of meat. If you are cooking a steak to serve just by itself want to consider the higher grades and cuts of meat, but if you were making a stew or putting the steak in something you might be able to use a lower grade of meat. If you are making a dish where one of the main ingredients is something from the produce you might want to take into consideration the grades of produce as well. An overall good rule of thumb to keep in mind when trying to figure out the right kind of produce or meat to buy is to consider if it would affect the quality or taste of the dish if you used a cheaper or lower grade.

3. Be open to trying new types of food and recipes.

When you were little did your parents ever make you try food that you really didn’t want to try and you ended up liking it? This idea of trying new foods is what helps you become a foodie. Sometimes I tend to find myself staying in my comfort zone when it comes to food and recipes that I like, but this doesn’t help me grow as a foodie! By staying in my comfort zone, I am missing out on so many opportunities to expand my learning and knowledge of food. So, keep mastering recipes you like, but also push yourself to try new food and recipes!

4. Try multiple recipes of the same dish before settling on one.

There are so many different versions and ways to prepare the same dish, but there isn’t one right way to cook a dish. Everyone has their own unique style or flavor profile that they like to bring through in their dish. It is important to explore these different styles to figure out what you like because if you settle for the first recipe that you come on you will never know what you are missing out on.

5. Find what makes you passionate about becoming a foodie!

Even if your goal isn’t to become a foodie everyone has to eat, so why not make it interesting? If you like trying the latest diet, then try the latest diet. If you love chicken, then explore different things you can do with chicken. Whatever aspect of food you find interesting pursue it and you might find yourself becoming a foodie.  

So, there you have it! I hope these tips help you get started on your journey as a foodie. Comment or reply other tips or questions you may have and let’s help each other become foodies!