So excited to feature another blogger/friend spotlight here on BackPorchPaleo. This month it’s our dear friends Kendra and Rob Benson from @ourpaleolife and @fatfitgo ~ 💕
Kendra and I “knew” each other via Instagram and chit chatted back and forth, as so many IG friends do. We have much in common with our families, faith and lifestyle. They live in Fort Collins, Colorado not too far from where I grew up and her husband had spent some time in Provo back in the day…the list goes on and on.
While I was at PaleoFX last year, I saw her make a post about being there as well….WHAT!? How we hadn’t realized we were both going to be there was crazy. It took us a few attempts, but we finally coordinated meeting up and spent some time visiting in person. Such a treat when you finally get to meet a friend from IG and find out that these are such real and genuine relationships. We totally bonded further over the in’s and out’s of making your own kombucha. It was time well spent there in Austin and we enjoyed every second. True to form in this community, they are such wonderful folks. Full of passion for what they do and how it’s helped their lives and their families lives.
Kendra and Rob are an up and coming power couple in the Paleo/Keto/Primal community. They’ve recently started a new company called “Fat Fit Go” ~~ travel ready pouches that are high fat, plant based and loaded with real food ~~ the soon to be “must have” natural energy blends everyone will be carrying around with them while traveling and adventuring! These gems will be making their debut in Austin at PaleoFX next week. I’ve already got mine pre-ordered…you should join us and be a part of this exciting new low carb/high fat snack! Could not be more excited for these two. Read on and get to know this amazing couple and be sure to follow along on both of their accounts: @ourpaleolife & @fatfitgo over on IG ~~~~ please enjoy!
Our Road from S.A.D. to Paleo to Keto
We used to be your standard American family as far as our diet was concerned. I was quite proficient in the kitchen, whipping up cookies, cupcakes, and fondant-covered cakes, as well as the occasional gourmet meal of pasta and meat. I enjoyed my time in the kitchen and creating new and exciting treats and meals for my family and friends.
Though heart disease and diabetes runs in my family, along with a couple different types of cancer, I never put much thought into my health. I always had the mentality that I was young and vibrant and that stuff was far away and not to be worried about. Even after skating dangerously close to gestational diabetes with my first two pregnancies, I still wasn’t overly concerned with my health or the food I was eating. I assumed that the food pyramid was accurate so I followed that. I know, I was so naive.
After a failed first attempt at paleo during my third pregnancy (pro tip: don’t dive into a new lifestyle without researching HOW to do it correctly), we finally had success about a year later. We removed every bit of non-paleo food from our home, cancelled our milk delivery, and went shopping to replace all the grains, sugars, and dairy in our kitchen with paleo-approved foods. At that point, we simply had no choice but to eat the paleo way.
At first, it was complex and confusing, learning how to cook and bake with almond flour and honey. But as time went on, things started clicking. In addition to the food getting better, we noticed changes in our bodies and minds that we weren’t expecting. The changes for me personally were mostly in my gut. No more stomach aches or making sure I always knew where a bathroom was or dealing with gut-wrenching pain. In addition, my headaches and restless legs had been minimized as well.
The biggest improvement our family saw was in my then-6-year-old son, who you may call a “typical boy”. He had been getting in trouble at school for being too hyper and not sitting still or paying attention. Shortly after removing grains, artificial colors/flavors, and sugars from his diet, both the principal and his teacher reached out to let us know that he was like a whole new kid. They couldn’t believe what a drastic improvement he had made in such a short period of time. That was it, we were sold on paleo for life.
Fast forward about 3-4 years. More and more science about the way we eat is about as important as the food itself. Although keto was nothing new (it’s actually been around for ages), it had started to gain some momentum within the paleo community. In January 2016, we decided to look more into and see if the benefits touted were legitimate. As with our first experience with paleo, keto didn’t go too well. I thought we were doing it wrong, but it turns out we simply had the “keto flu” from switching so drastically from a carb-based diet to a fat-based one. Again, more in-depth research here would have done us a world of good.
After a brief reprieve, we researched a lot more and gave keto another go. This time we had much more success. After the initial adjustment period from a glucose-fueled body to a fat-burning one, it was smooth sailing. The amount of energy we have now that we eat very little carbs is incredible. Not to mention the amount of time we can go in between meals without feeling like we’re starving. Intermittent fasting has become a staple for us now, and I also do some extended fasts as well (around 3-4 days). But when we do eat, we eat the things you see below. That doesn’t look like diet food does it? That’s because eating keto with paleo/primal (REAL!) foods is truly delicious!
Having a body that runs on ketones from nutritionally-induced ketosis feels so incredibly natural. Even more so than when we were strict paleo. We have reintroduced some dairy into our diets and in a strange (and happy) twist, I am now able to tolerate it. Paleo seems to have healed my gut in a way that lets me eat dairy now, and for that I am so grateful.
With the transition from paleo to keto, we still eat mostly paleo/primal foods, but eat them in a way that reduces the carbs, increases the fat, and keeps us in a ketogenic state. So, it’s basically the paleo diet on the keto protocol.
One problem we noticed for our family, since we enjoy traveling, hiking, and camping, is that travel-friendly, low-carb high-fat foods with clean ingredients are basically impossible to find. Rob was on a plane earlier this year and was eating a packet of coconut butter and a few low-carb chocolates I packed with him. While he wasn’t wild about the flavors alone, he knew that if he and I brainstormed an idea together, we could come up with the perfect travel food for our family. And from that, Fat Fit Go was born out of necessity for real food we could always take with us.
We have tested and tasted and tested and tasted some more to be sure that what we had was actually good, while keeping the macros in check. We fed it to neighbor kids (because if a non-keto kid liked it, that meant most everyone else would like it too and we weren’t just biased), took jars and packs of it with us when we traveled, and through all our testing, we just couldn’t get enough of it. We still can’t. The best part (aside from the taste, obviously) is that we were able to formulate it with clean ingredients, nothing weird or something you can’t pronounce, and it still has just 2g net carbs and 24g of fat per packet.
And the packets, yes! They are so travel-friendly. They fit right in your pocket, purse, bag, suitcase, airplane, fannypack, anywhere. The 1.15oz size is the perfect serving size, just satisfying enough to get you through your next adventure. Why? Because of all the healthy fats packed in there.
So what’s inside? Tons of healthy fats and delicious natural flavors. The base includes pecans, MCT oil, almonds, coconut, macadamia nuts, cocoa butter, chia seeds, avocado oil, real salt, and less than 1% stevia. Additionally, the individual flavors have cocoa powder and cinnamon (for the Original Chocolate flavor) and pure lime oil (for the Tropical Margarita).
We are officially launching Fat Fit Go at Paleo f(x) in Austin, TX on April 27, 2018 and canNOT wait to share this with the world. We are so excited and so proud of the hard work that has gone in to this product. Our kids love it, we love it, and we know that you’ll love it too.
This has changed the way we keto. It has kept us from making some pretty poor choices in our travels and adventures. Rather than reaching for the sugar-loaded jar of peanut butter or weird ingredients in protein bars, we are reaching for packets of Fat Fit Go to keep us fueled when we’re away from the comfort of our own keto-stocked kitchen. Even if you’re not into keto, this is still a great traveling energy snack that will keep you from having that carb-rush then crash.
And if you’ll be at Paleo f(x), please stop by and say “hi”, we’d love to meet you and get have the chance to chat. We love meeting new people and getting to know everyone in our ever-growing paleo/primal/keto community!
