Happy Friday....if it meant something.

To those of you who have the weekend off, Happy Friday to you!! However, it has been a while since friday meant anything to me considering I work all weekend at the office I work at. It's almost funny when practice members call over the weekend, on a sunday for example and sound surprised when I answer the phone "Samantha?? You work all weekend long??" Yes, I do. I have proved that there really is no rest for the wicked. Anyway, I figured I would give a mini lesson on carbs this morning. To  people (especially women) who are trying to lose weight, the best way to lose fat is by going on a low carb diet. If you want the research click Right Hizz-ere! There are risks to eating low carb, high protein diets for an extended amount of time, but for short periods of up to 12 weeks or so, it can't do a lot of harm. One of the risks is high cholesterol, which can easily be avoided by not eating red meats all the time (even though I love me some Bison) and eating only the whites of eggs. Many people also have super thwarted ideas of what good sources of protein are. (Yes this is a side bar, I know I was supposed to be talking about carbs) Nut butters, such as peanut butter do have protein, but should NOT be considered a source of protein. They are a source of fat. The protein is an added bonus. Almond butter especially is a great source of healthy fats, and has some fiber, but not a whole lot of protein compared to the amount of fat.
          Back to carbs, Many people are under the impression that you need carbs for energy. Which is generally true. Under normal circumstances, and what is recommended by many nutrition text books (including my college nutrition text book from last semester) is that about 60% of your diet come from carbs. NO NO NO NO!! I will try to find the online article but, especially women do better with a low carb diet. If you didn't read the awesome link I added, or didn't really get it, basically, when you drop your carb consumption, your body goes from carb burning mode, to fat burning mode. Why don't our bodies do this naturally you might ask? Well I found a nifty little article to explain it all, because I wouldn't trust me either Yeeeuhhhh another link. Once again, if you didn't read my awesome link, in a nutshell, our bodies store fat to keep from starving, and if we can draw from that instead of the new fuel we are putting in our body, it means losing that muffin top before you know it!
    
And I will leave you with this adorable picture of piggies.