Why Karli’s Kitch?

I created this blog for the purposes of sharing and helping.

If you are one of the people who have actually read ‘The Plant Paradox’ (or plan to) that I mentioned in My Story, or even read another version of an anti-inflammatory diet (e.g. Dr. Amy Myers is another common one, there are many more out there), you likely felt the same as I did: inspired but yet overwhelmed, paralyzed as to where to even start and even depressed a little, thinking that you will never enjoy food again because you’re not allowed to eat anything.

This is for all of you, who are maybe like me, with minimal to average cooking skills, who don’t know where or how to start, yet are motivated to better manage your health (and or weight) by means of an anti-inflammatory diet. AND! You still want to enjoy food.

As mentioned, the specific anti-inflammatory diet we follow is Dr. Gundry’s diet called, The Plant Paradox. I say “we” because my hubby does the diet with me even though he has no health concerns. I speak about this in Getting Started because this is important if you have a family or partner.

Like I said, there are many versions and types of anti-inflammatory diets. We chose this one because (a) we had to choose one and stick to it (b) this one specifically addresses autoimmune disorders and disease (among a slew of other health concerns from heart disease to headaches to irritable bowel syndrome and excessive fatigue to name a few; there are actually 2 full pages in his book dedicated to an exhaustive list of health issues that he believes his diet addresses) (c) I personally like that he is a medical doctor who has spent 20+ years researching his theory that is backed by significant research, science and anecdotal evidence and (d) we actually met with him face-to-face and found him to be passionate, extremely thorough and insanely educated from current research and opinion, right down to the origins of food and basic science. I like that he didn’t try to sell me on every single supplement but instead made recommendations that were specific to my issues, and he even told me to buy them at Costco because it was cheaper than buying from him.

I found that the actual recipes in ‘The Plant Paradox’ book were boring and bland (sorry Dr. Gundry if you ever happen to see this!). There IS a Plant Paradox cookbook however and it is great. I would recommend buying it as you won’t have to worry about how to substitute or modify, or if the ingredients are “on diet”. And then you too can hopefully experiment and share with me/us what recipes and meals you’ve enjoyed.

Please use this blog and Instagram feed for tips, tricks, recipes and inspiration. I will continue to post as I learn and experiment with recipes and also show you how to modify and substitute. I also hope to engage and communicate with you, answer and ask questions back and forth to hopefully help us and others as we go along.

I also hope to get to a point where we can share success stories to hopefully inspire others to get on a path of health and feeling good.

One last but important mention. The most surprising thing since following this diet is that we have honestly never enjoyed food more. That’s the exciting part in all of this. Not only do we love eating this way and look forward to every meal but I have come to enjoy cooking (my parents are still in shock over this fact). It’s become a running joke in our home the number of times my hubby, a true food connoisseur (i.e. human garburator) has said “this is the best meal I’ve ever had”. We also notice that whenever we veer away from the diet (this will happen when you travel or go out for dinner), that we often feel like crap the next day.