As we head into the holiday season, people are looking for ways to stay healthy and avoid the dreaded weight gain that inevitably results from partaking in a good old holiday smörgåsbord.
Unfortunately, eating healthy often feels like compromising taste. When faced with a choice between a kale smoothie or a pile of yams drowned in marshmallows and cinnamon, let’s face it: most of us are going for the yams, with an extra scoop of marshmallows for good measure.
But what if there were a way to lose weight and be healthier without having to grit your teeth and pretend that you like quinoa? We spoke with our friend Laura Spath, who is making waves on social media for sharing her weight loss journey. Last year, Laura lost 120 lbs in around 10 months eating–are you ready for this?–steak.
When we found out that Laura had been an avid user of MEATER for nearly three years, we set out to learn how the Wireless Smart Meat Thermometer had been a handy cooking tool on her journey to becoming a Carnivore Queen.
Yes, you read that correctly. Steak. The beef kind. After years of yo-yo diets and fleeting results, Laura tried out the Keto diet starting in March of 2018, and transitioned up to the Carnivore diet a few months later. Not only did these diets yield insane weight loss results, they have also helped Laura to consistently maintain her healthy weight in a way that none of her previous diets could, in large part because she actually enjoys what she eats.
Success stories like Laura’s are a big part of why Keto and Carnivore have gained so much notice within the last few years. But because of this, many companies have tried to capitalize on the popularity by selling pre-packaged, “Keto-Friendly” foods that offer convenience, but ultimately do more harm than good. The trick to real progress is avoiding these traps and cooking your own meals. This can seem a bit daunting, especially if you’re new to a low-carb, high-fat diet.
Low-Carb Meals Cooked To Perfection
A huge part of loving what you eat is making sure your food is properly cooked. Even the highest quality steaks can suffer if not cooked correctly, and as curious as we would be to try Prime grade jerky, it’s not exactly sustainable as an everyday meal.
“As much as people think that they’re an expert at just poking a piece of meat and knowing its doneness, there’s no guarantee unless you’re using a quality thermometer, so that has made a big difference in us being able to stay consistent with a low-carb diet or a meat-based diet.“
For Laura, using MEATER has been important because “it really takes you to the next level as far as cooking meat goes. When that’s all you’re eating, being able to cook it properly makes such a difference. We have quality meat that we’re able to cook and eat, and it’s delicious, and so it helps you miss pizza a little less.”
Spice Up Your Keto Diet
With so many diets, you run the risk of getting bored from eating the same things ad nauseam. But, as Laura puts it, the beauty of diets like Keto and Carnivore is that “there can almost be infinite possibilities when you’re looking at cuts of meat and cooking methods. Just cooking a steak on the cast iron skillet versus a smoker versus a grill gives you three completely different textures and tastes out of the same cut of meat.” From there, you can play with spice combinations to come up with new flavors.
If you find yourself getting tired of steak, (a ridiculous suggestion, we know, but just speaking hypothetically), you can switch it up with pork, chicken, lamb, fish, venison, or kangaroo. You just have to select your preferred guided cook in the MEATER app–yes, kangaroo is actually in there–so you don’t need to worry about memorizing cook times or ideal temperatures for any one kind of protein.
Laura regularly encourages her followers to tailor their diets based on their particular taste and budget, and according to her, this is one of her favorite things about MEATER.
“Being able to just click Beef > Ribeye > Medium is key for people who are first learning how to cook meat. You don’t have to understand anything about temperatures, but just being able to select what you’re cooking and then how you like it cooked makes it a lot more simple. And I think it helps you learn about what you like and how to cook meat.”
Meal Prep Made Easy with MEATER
If you’re a normal person who doesn’t have cooking-based superpowers, you’ve probably struggled with time management while cooking your meals. Recipe prep times are never as short as they are in the cookbooks, and by the time you’re done finely chopping your cilantro, your other dishes are already halfway through cooking. For anyone who finds themselves nodding empathically at that last sentence, the concept of meal prep may be overwhelming, because increasing the quantity of what you are cooking makes time management all the more challenging.
For Laura, using MEATER takes a lot of the stress off, and not having to babysit her meat allows her more time to focus on everything else.
“As soon as MEATER gave me that estimate of how much time I had left, I was able to then plan the rest of the meal or what I was preparing based on that estimate.”
Treat Your Self This Holiday Season
Every holiday or celebration requires a little bit of indulgence. It’s tradition! The problem is that once you start using celebrations as an excuse to cheat, it’s a slippery slope. It starts with Christmas and your birthday, but pretty soon, every day is a reason to forgo your diet. Independence Day? Potato salad. Arbor Day? Tree-shaped brownies. International Pizza Day? That’s pretty self-explanatory.
The good news is that treats don’t have to be sweets. For Laura and her family, holiday indulgence means “more expensive meats, fancier cuts, things that we wouldn’t normally spend money on or the time to cook. On a holiday, it makes you feel fancy to have a really expensive steak and a big hunk of fried cheese, and it doesn’t get any better than that.”
If you’re splurging on a fancy cut of beef, it’s doubly important to make sure it’s cooked correctly, so make sure you don’t skip using MEATER when you’re grilling up your Prime grade ribeye.
Whether you’ve just set out on your low-carb, high-fat voyage, or you’re a seasoned pro looking to make your life a little easier, Laura Spath and the team at MEATER are here to make sure it’s smooth sailing from here on out.
Ready to kickstart your Keto lifestyle? Learn more about MEATER here.
Be sure to follow Laura on YouTube and Instagram for more inspiration and encouragement!