Are you an Endomorph (if unsure read our blog post from 10/19/2015) and need a new idea for a low carb dinner option? Below is one of my favorite dinner recipes, courtesy of cavemanketo.com! It is easy to make and will leave you with plenty of left overs for tomorrow's lunch. Try it and let me know what you think!

Chicken Avocado Casserole                                              Prep Time: 15 minutes
Author: Caveman Keto                                                     Cook Time: 20 minutes
Nutrition Information                                                        Total Time: 35 minutes

• Serves: 6                                                                            

• Serving size: ⅙th
• Calories: 549

• Fat: 40g
• Carbohydrates: 13g
• Protein: 39g

Ingredients

• 8 Boneless Chicken Thighs, cooked
• 4 Small Avocados
• 1 Medium Onion
• 1 Medium Pepper
• 8 Oz. Sour Cream
• 8 Oz. Cheddar Cheese
• 1 Tbsp of your favorite hot sauce (I use Cholula!) 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Start by cooking the chicken thighs, for this recipe I had them already cooked, but just bake at 350 for 1.5 hours covered with some water or cube and pan fry until juices are clear
3. Peel avocados, cut in half, and slice into thin strips
4. Grease a baking dish and line the bottom with avocado slices, reserve any extra
5. Cut the peppers and onions into strips and pan fry until caramelized
6. Add the chicken into a large bowl and flake apart
7. Add remaining ingredients, including any extra avocado, and mix
8. Spoon mixture over the avocado slices
9. Bake for 20 minutes
10. Enjoy!

I used to love flying on a plane as a child, but as I got older I realized how terrible I felt after each flight. I would always leave the plane with chapped lips, dry sinuses, and for some reason be more susceptible to catching a cold within the next few days. Here are a two things that you can do to help feel better the next time that you travel by air.

1. Drink Plenty of Water: Most of us don't drink enough water in the first place, not to mention when we are traveling. It is recommended to drink at least 8 ounces of water for every hour that you travel. That is about 2 of those cups that the flight attendants give you when  they are passing out drinks and snacks. 
2. Exercise: What do you do during the flight to pass the time? Try to sleep? Read? Catch up on work? All of these activities have you sitting prone in your seat. Once that seat belt light turns off, try and make sure to walk up and down the isle at least once an hour during your flight. This will keep your blood flow circulating and help prevent that achy feeling your body after sitting down for hours at a time. 

So the next time you travel by plane, make sure to drink plenty of water and exercise during the flight. Make sure to book an isle seat so that you don't annoy your fellow travelers by the amount of times that you will have to get up to go to the bathroom and walk about the cabin.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about the Fab 5 Eating habits that are a great start to beginning to having a complete and healthy diet. One of the issues that many of my clients face is the time that it takes to prepare their daily meals and they explain that they often miss meals or will dine out for convenience. Here are some time saving tips that I use for my weekly meal prep:

1. Precooking Protein: Cooking your protein typically is the longest part of my food preparation for the week. In order to help with this, I will cook a massive amount of protein for a meal and then store the left overs in the fridge. For your next meal, the protein is already cooked and you only need to heat it up. Once you are finished cooking, make sure to only take the amount that you intend to eat and immediately store the rest to help prevent over eating.
2. Pre-cutting Vegetables: Veggies can also take a long time to prep; washing, cutting, and cooking. I will often prepare all of my day's worth of veggies in the morning. I will wash and cut my veggies as I cook breakfast and then store them in the fridge. This is also known as the "Breakfast Ritual". You will always have some down time cooking breakfast, use that time to prepare your meals for the rest of the day. 

Other ways to help reduce the time for your daily meal preparation are: 

1. Sunday Ritual: Set 3 hours aside on Sundays, make your food list, go to grocery store, and then prepare all of your meals for the entire week and store them in the fridge. 
   
2. Liquid Meals: This is a common way for my wife to eat her breakfast, since she is often on the go in the morning. She will load up our blender with veggies, kale, walnuts or almonds, some Greek yogurt, fruit for flavor, and then adds water. She then throws this in a cup and is able to drink it on the way to work. Not ideal for every meal, but works well for when you are in a hurry and don't have time to cook

Are you an athlete that is confused about what your nutritional plan for game day should look like? Wondering what you should eat and/or what time your meals should be at? Here are three simple guidelines you should follow.

1. Do what you've practiced: Don't change things because it is game day. You should be doing the same dynamic warm up that you normally do before practice or before a training run. You've already put in all of the work to be successful. On game day, show up and do what you've practiced.
2. Fuel the body: Your primary goal on game day should be focused on fueling the body. You want to make sure that you have enough blood glucose supply to prevent you from bonking. Stay with foods that you are familiar with and avoid big meals. It is recommended to snack throughout the day of competition. Make sure that each snack contains some protein, fats, and quality carbohydrates. 
3. Avoid foods that make you uncomfortable: It is easy for an athlete to be overly amped up and over stimulated on game day. This can make it harder to tolerate larger meals or foods that take longer for your body to digest. Make sure to eat foods that make you feel good and are easy on your stomach. Experiment with eating a variety of foods before your practices to see what makes you feel good and able to reach optimal performance. 

It was not uncommon for me to drink several sodas a day when I was a teenager. That was until my junior year in high school. The summer before beginning my junior year, I went to a week long overnight basketball team camp in Washington. Some of the drills and games were played outside in the heat of the direct sunlight. Our coach explained the increased risk of dehydration and placed a "no soda" rule on the team for the week and insisted that we drank water instead. After the week of camp and tired of only drinking water, I had a soda as soon as I entered my house. But I couldn't get passed the first sip. It was too sweet. 

I then began drinking fruit juice to replace the soda in my every day diet, thinking that it was a healthier option. This is common for most Americans trying to reduce/replace their soda intake when trying to make healthier life style choices. Schools have even replaced soda in vending machines with fruit juice. The problem is that juice contains just as much sugar, sometimes more, than the soda that it is replacing and presents the same health risks as soda. Here's why.

Soda is artificial and uses high fructose corn syrup as it's sweetener. Juice comes from fruit, which is naturally sweetened by fructose. When fructose enters your body, it is sent to be processed in your liver. Part of the fructose is converted into glucose and stored as glycogen, while most of it is converted into triglycerides (a type of fat). High amounts of triglycerides leads to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. 

The journal of Nutrition published an article last year that looked at the difference in the level of fructose in sodas and juices, what they found may surprise you. They found that fruit juice purchased in the store had, on average, a fructose concentration of 45.5 grams/liter, just 4.5 grams/liter less than it's soda counterpart (50 grams/liter). Minute Maid Apple Juice had the highest fructose concentration of the juices that were in the study at 65.8 grams/liter. That is higher than soda power houses Pepsi (65.7 grams/liter), Coca Cola (62.5 grams/liter), and Dr. Pepper (61.4 grams/liter). 

Well does this mean that eating whole fruit is just as bad as drinking soda too, since it contains fructose? No. Whole fruits also contain fiber, which slows down the and reduces the absorption of sugar in the body. 

So what if you aren't ready to cut juice completely out of your diet, but don't want the high amounts of sugar? Although many juices have begun to cut the sugar, it is recommended to dilute your juice with 50% water. 

Lesson? My morning glass of fruit juice had more sugar than if I drank a morning glass of Pepsi. Several years ago, I completely cut out fruit juice and began drinking water. And I have never felt better. If you are a juice-a-holic like I was, make sure to dilute your juice with water, or better yet, just drink water.