AIP Dairy-Free (DF) Gluten-Free (GF) Keto Paleo Recipes Sides Whole 30
Grilled Fennel (Keto, Paleo, AIP, Whole 30, GFDF)
February 18, 2019
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I’m always down to try something new and when the grill is hot, it’s the perfect opportunity to throw some veggies on and see what happens. This time I tried grilled fennel and it turned out pretty good.

I never would have thought to grill fennel. I hardly ever think to eat it raw actually. Fennel just isn’t a veggie I think about often. I don’t even run across it very often in the grocery store. I’ll be looking for it more often now!

I can never get enough ideas for side dishes or ways to spice up veggies so this was a pleasant surprise. I have heard of people grilling greens. I’ve seen grilled romaine lettuce on several menus but I wasn’t sure about grilling more than peppers, onions, and mushrooms myself. Now I’m going to try and grill every veggies I come across. Ha!

Fennel is something I don’t usually eat, but have recently started to experiment with. It’s got a black licorice flavor and a super awesome crunch. I’ve used it in salads and roasted it, but I decided to toss it on the grill and it was fabulous. Try it for yourself or add it to a plate of grilled veggies!

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Dairy-Free (DF) Gluten-Free (GF) Mains Paleo Recipes Whole 30
Paleo Crockpot Beef Stew (GFDF, Whole 30)
February 16, 2019
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Beef stew in crockpot

I send Blake with a healthy homemade lunch every day of the week. He’s got a long haul to the office, an hour commute, and he needs to have food ready to keep his brain running optimally to concentrate.

So every Sunday I prep his lunch for the entire week in one shot. He’s a big guy and it takes a lot to fill him up and satisfy him. He cannot be hungry or he either won’t be able to concentrate or he’ll lose his mind and go on the rampage. Which isn’t good for anyone. So we tend to do a lot of crockpot meals and casseroles.

Lately variety has been an issue. We tend to make the same thing over and over again and he’s getting bored. So this weekend we decided to try something different. Different for us that is, the meal we decided on is actually a very common meal. We decided on a hearty beef stew.

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Chronic Illness Weight Loss
How to Maintain Weight Loss
February 14, 2019
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How to Maintain Weight Loss

Weight loss is an arduous task that requires commitment, consistency, and agility. Maintaining weight loss can be just as difficult. If you successfully lost weight, congratulations you’re amazing. Studies indicate that approximately 30% of weight loss strategies adopted by individuals fail within the first few months. You’ve beaten the odds, now you’ve just got to keep those pounds off. So how do you maintain weight loss? Hopefully, these tips will help.

The health benefits associated with an effective weight loss plan are profound. aside from this health perspective, weight loss has a positive effect in improving one’s self-esteem, social strata, employment opportunities, and improved drive for completion of physical, mental, and psychological tasks that were previously difficult.

However, in spite of these positive weight loss outcomes, the most difficult tasks are maintaining a long-term weight loss plan. Majority of people who engage in long term plans usually fail due to a variety of factors that are both internal and external. Therefore, prior to engaging in a long-term weight loss plan, one needs to understand some of these barriers to sustainable plan execution and results outcomes. This means that the individual should engage in a self-realization strategy that strives to identify these barriers, and formulate ways and methodologies for countering their effects. However, there is a universal plan and set of guidelines for enhancing a sustainable long-term weight loss.

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Dairy-Free (DF) Desserts Gluten-Free (GF) Keto Paleo Recipes
Bacon Grease Sugar Cookie (GFDF, Paleo, Keto)
February 11, 2019
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Bacon Grease Sugar Cookie

Bacon grease sugar cookies?

Yup! Sometimes the best recipes come from just playing in the kitchen when a craving hits. That’s exactly how I figured out that bacon grease makes an amazing sugar cookie!

I make a ton of bacon. At least a pound each week, and I always save the bacon grease in my nifty grease keeper that always sits on my stove ready to capture that liquid gold! If you don’t save your bacon grease, what are you doing with your life? I love this little ceramic container and I would recommend it to anyone who is living the high-fat life.

Soooo, when that bacon grease starts to pile up, you need a good way to use it up to make room for the new stuff. I got to thinking, I wonder if I could use bacon grease in place of butter for baking. Since I have to be dairy free or face a very slow and painful death, I thought maybe this would be a good idea. Turns out, it’s a pretty damned good idea!

These are a little different in terms of texture, but I think they taste just like a real sugar cookie. You might want to grab a cold glass of water or almond milk to have with them. Blake also gave them a rave review! You should definitely give them a try!

Here’s the recipe…let me know what you think.

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Desserts Keto Recipes
Keto Valentine’s Day Dessert Recipe Roundup
February 7, 2019
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Heart shaped keto peanut butter cups on a cooling rack.
Keto Peanut Butter Cup Recipe from eatbefitexplore.com

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. That means an overload of chocolate, strawberries, roses, all kinds of sugar packed desserts.

I got your back though! I’ve gathered five delicious keto Valentine’s Day dessert recipes. You can totally have your keto and eat your sweets too this Valentine’s day!

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Inspiration My Life
Be Well, Be Keto Podcast Interview
February 6, 2019
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Heather Cooan and Tracee Gluhaich

I had the pleasure of interviewing with Tracee Gluhaich on the Be Well, Be Keto podcast. The episode was just released this morning.

We had a blast talking about all things keto, food allergies, cancer treatment, therapeutic keto for cancer, my healing journey, and my desire to help others.

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AIP Dairy-Free (DF) Desserts Gluten-Free (GF) Keto Paleo Recipes Whole 30
Keto Chocolate Covered Strawberries (Whole 30, AIP, Paleo, GFDF)
February 5, 2019
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Keto chocolate covered strawberries on a plate.
Keto Chocolate Covered Strawberries from HeatherCooan.com

The very first thing I ever tried to make keto was chocolate covered strawberries. It turned out to be way easier than I had expected and they were yummy!

The texture was perfect using coconut oil to create a keto magic shell kind of substance. It was sweet and crunchy and was the perfect contrast to the tart berry.

The coating isn’t as thick as the traditional chocolate covered strawberry. I’m sure you could refrigerate and then add a second and third coat of the magic shell to build it up a bit. I didn’t bother, I thought they were good with one coat.

These would be a great follow up to a romantic dinner or a great way to surprise your love for Valentine’s Day or on a random Tuesday evening when you want to get all romantic!

You could even whip up a batch of whipped cream or whipped coconut cream for dipping to make them extra special!

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Dairy-Free (DF) Gluten-Free (GF) Keto Paleo Recipes Snacks
Fresh Cilantro Salsa (GFDF, Paleo, Keto)
February 1, 2019
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Fresh Cilantro Salsa

There’s really nothing better than fresh salsa and if you’re like me and love Cilantro (I guess it tastes like soap to a lot of people), fresh cilantro salsa is the best.

I created this recipe back when I was dealing with leaky gut and I was reacting to garlic. So feel free to add garlic if you like, almost all of the conventional pre-made salsas have garlic.

I love cilantro (did I already say that?) and lime in salsa and I made sure to use plenty of both in this recipe, you’ll have to let me know what you think when you try it.

I love this stuff on top of a taco bowl or scooped up with a crispy pork rind.

What’s your salsa delivery device of choice?

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Cancer Chronic Illness
8 Difficult Emotional Responses to a Cancer Diagnosis
January 30, 2019
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I get a lot of questions from people who have a loved one recently diagnosed with cancer. They often want to know what my alternative cancer treatment protocol looked like or how to implement a therapeutic ketogenic diet and lifestyle to treat cancer.

These are obvious, you probably expect that I get these questions. But the other big question I get from these folks is, how do I support my loved one through their cancer diagnosis?

The first time I got this question I was surprised. But then I thought back about my own emotional reaction to my diagnosis. As you can imagine, a diagnosis of this magnitude comes with every emotion and shade of emotion humans are capable of having not to mention emotional trauma.

Some of these emotional responses might manifest as pushing people away and it may help you to understand some of what your loved one may be feeling. Here are 8 difficult emotional responses to a cancer diagnosis you might run into.

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Nutritional Therapies
78 Reasons to Avoid Sugar
January 25, 2019
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78 Reasons to Avoid Sugar

Ok, I’m about to make a very bold statement…you ready?

Sugar is the number one killer in America and probably the world.

Sugar is the underlying cause of some of the biggest killers in the world like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity. Not to mention, it’s the cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is spreading rapidly in both children and adults.

According to the New York Times, an estimated 80 million to 100 million Americans have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which causes the liver to swell with dangerous levels of fat. Roughly seven million of those are adolescents and teenagers.

There is absolutely zero nutritional value to be gained by eating processed sugar. Empty calories keep you slave to the highs and lows of a dangerous game of bouncing blood sugar.

Sugar is bad news, and if these weren’t reason enough to stay away from the white stuff, here are 78 more reasons why you should steer clear!

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Dairy-Free (DF) Desserts Gluten-Free (GF) Keto Paleo Recipes
Keto Chocolate Walnut Fat Bomb Ice Cream (GFDF, Paleo)
January 21, 2019
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Keto Chocolate Walnut Fat Bomb Ice Cream

This Keto Chocolate Walnut Fat Bomb Ice Cream was a staple during my cancer treatments. Utilizing the ketogenic diet for treatment of cancer and chronic illness, it’s important to be in the therapeutic ketone range and to do so you have to get in 80-90% fat.

It’s surprisingly easy to get too much protein and not enough fat if you don’t supplement with additional fat. Since I live in Phoenix, and I was going through vulvar cancer treatment during the summer, ice cream was the obvious choice for adding more fat to my menu.

It made for a very refreshing treat that I would actually eat. It was hot and I was so deep into ketosis that I had zero appetite and some days I just didn’t want anything at all.

I love this stuff and Blake liked it too. It’s not just nutrient dense (full of fat) and complimentary of my style of ketogenic diet, it’s delicious.

You don’t have to stick with keto chocolate walnut fat bomb ice cream though, you can play with any flavorings or mixins you want. I’d probably steer clear of fruit flavors unless you are using flavored stevia just because of the added sugar. But Any keto flavor you can imagine is doable.

I have swapped out the nuts for macadamia or pili nuts and it was just as good. I even made a plain vanilla version that I put on top of the Flourless Avocado Brownie recipe from The Castaway Kitchen. So good! Tasted just like a brownie a la mode!

One of these days I’m going to make a bacon version!

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Wellbeing
Exercise and Better Sleep
January 16, 2019
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Exercise and Better Sleep

Did you know that the amount of physical exercise that you get during the day is one of the key ingredients to helping you get a good sleep at night?

Yup! The more active your body is during the day, the more likely you are to relax at night and fall asleep faster. According to the 2013 National Sleep Foundation Sleep In America Poll people who say they exercise report better sleep than those who say they don’t exercise. More than three-fourths of exercisers said their sleep quality was very good or fairly good in the past two weeks, compared to just over one-half of non-exercisers.

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My Life
Why I Love the Digital Marketing Community
March 17, 2018
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I spent most of last week trying not to cry in front of the digital marketing community…

Last week I spoke at SMX West in San Jose, my first speaking gig back after recovering from burnout, beating cancer, opening my own firm, and returning to agency-side from a few years spent brand-side. I was incredibly nervous to dust off my personal brand and jump back into the digital marketing community as a thought leader and now, an agency owner.

Speaking after a 2-year hiatus is nerve-wracking, the last time I spoke at a conference was at HeroConf Portland in 2016. In addition to participating in the Mastering Social Advertising workshop, talking about Facebook ads that convert, I took a gamble and put together a presentation about CRM campaign tracking that I delivered during the Multi-Touch Attribution Models that Move the Needle panel. Attacking the attribution conversation from a completely different angle then I’ve ever seen covered in the past. On top of this change in topical focus, I was also representing my own venture for the first time ever, having formally announced HDC Digital to the world only a month prior to SMX West. So yeah…I was nervous.

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Intentional Living
Year of Yes | Book Review
March 7, 2018
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Year of Yes Book Review

I love this book. I love Shonda Rhimes. I love everything about this story. I loved the way the book made me feel while I was reading it and the motivational hang-over it left me with. I rarely re-read books, but this is one I will pick up again for sure!

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Cancer Chronic Illness
Books on The Metabolic Theory of Cancer
February 23, 2018
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Books on Cancer

These books really helped me gain confidence in my decision to trust natural and alternative cancer treatment. I highly recommend these books to anyone dealing with a cancer diagnosis navigating their treatment options

Once you understand the metabolic theory of cancer and how treatments like radiation and chemotherapy work, it just makes sense to change your lifestyle regardless of the cancer treatment you choose. The point is, you have to be educated in order to make a decision on cancer treatment. I’m really big on informed consent after everything I’ve been through. Only you can choose the right treatment for you and it’s crucial that you have all the information you can get your hands on.

Many of these are pretty dense with science and research. I found it much easier to digest this material in an audio format. You should be able to find all media types available for each of these on Amazon.

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My Life
HDC Digital Launch Announcement
January 31, 2018
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hdc-digital-launch

I’m starting off this year in an amazing place!

Today I’m announcing the launch of HDC Digital, a digital and demand marketing agency revolutionizing the way companies think about and approach growth.

After years of working both agency-side and brand-side with awesome people and brands, I’ve decided to open my own firm!

The impetus for this change comes out of a period of self-renewal…

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Cancer Chronic Illness
Mammogram Ruptures Tumor – Breast Cancer Patient Dies
January 1, 2018
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Damn…did you know that mammograms can rupture tumors and spread malignant cells?

One of the gals at my cancer clinic passed away last week. She had breast cancer, diagnosed in January 2017.

She went the conventional route for treatment initially including radiation therapy. The conventional treatment didn’t help and she started treating naturally at the clinic I attend where I was able to get to know her during our IV treatments together.

When she started treatment she looked healthy and young. I was shocked to learn that she was in her early 50’s, she looked like a young 45! She was so strong and had a great chance of living a long healthy life.

She took a turn for the worst when she went in for a mammogram to check the progress of her treatment. The compression of the mammogram was so powerful, it ruptured her tumor causing her cancer to spread into the pleura of her lungs. Since she had also had radiation therapy her lungs were damaged and weeping fluid. The combination caused fluid to build up in her lungs and difficulty breathing. Over the last couple of months, she has been on oxygen and was going in every 14-19 days to have her lungs drained of fluid.

In early January she stopped her natural treatments and the doctors could no longer find any fluid in her lungs. However, she still had difficulty breathing. She was hospitalized and two weeks later passed away.

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Intentional Living
My Favorite Productivity Tools
April 16, 2014
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Working in the digital atmosphere means keeping up with a lot and keeping out a lot of distractions. Staying organized, on track, and focused can be a challenge.

Here are a few of my favorite applications that help me stay on track on a daily basis.

Chrome & Chrome Canary

Chrome is my favorite browser. It’s fast and cleanly laid out. Not to mention I can use it to manage multiple Google accounts at one time. Now that there is an additional version with Chrome Canary, I can work across several Google accounts at the same time without much hassle.

Producteev

When it comes to task management I’ve searched high and low for the perfect tool. I’ve tried Google Tasks, Remember The Milk, Wunderlist, and a whole host of other apps.

I need something that I can use easily on the go with my mobile devices, keep notes in, mark priority with different numbers, set dates and reminders in as well as simply capture tasks and sub-tasks. I thought I had hit the jackpot when I tried out Asana after some colleagues raved about it. It almost did the trick but not quite.

Then I found Producteev, similar to Asana but a little more robust. It does everything I need it to do and it’s accessible across all of my mobile devices. I luuuurrve this app!

Google Drive

Google Docs, Google Drive, whatever.

Everyone has this baby on their list and I’m no different. Google Drive makes it so easy to collaborate on docs without overlapping changes and it’s just so easy and constantly accessible.

Hootsuite

When it comes to social media I’m a longtime user of Hootsuite. Many have tried to get me to switch to TweetDeck or Buffer, nope I’m a hardcore Hootsuite girl!

Hootsuite is a web based app and includes a browser plug in and mobile apps. This tool is so robust. It connects with Google Analytics, allows for content scheduling, and so much more! They’ve even got an open source app community that makes additional plugins for all kinds of cool things.

Feedly

I’ve been using Feedly since the death of my beloved Google Reader. I loved Google Reader so much, it was the king of feed readers.

I’ve grown to really enjoy Feedly though, it’s well laid out, easy to use, and works seamlessly across my android phone and tablet.

Evernote

Another evergreen tool that is on everyone’s list, the best note taking tool evar!

Evernote has so many uses and so many plugins, the mobile app is amazing, and…well, there is no other note taking option in my book.

These are just a few tools that help me stay productive and on track during my workday, what am I missing? Share your faves in the comments!

Wellbeing
5 Steps to Stress Relief
April 2, 2014
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,

How do you react when things don’t go according to plan?

Do you roll with the punches or does anxiety keep you from enjoying life?

To a great extent, our personality determines how we deal with stress in our lives, but here are 5 things to help keep your stress under control:

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My Life
2014 Professional Goals
January 1, 2014
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Whelp…it’s December 31, 2013. The very last day of 2013 is here and it’s time to reflect on the closing year and think through goals for the New Year.

I don’t really do the New Year’s Resolution thing, but I do sit down each year and create personal growth goals. Things I’d like to accomplish over the next year in both personal and professional categories. This year there are two things I’d like to accomplish.

Here they are, my 2014 professional goals:

Content Calendar

This goal is more of a desire to develop a positive habit. I am horrible about creating content at the very last minute. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s a blog post, a video, a presentation deck, etc. I always end up scrambling at the last minute to get things done.

This year will be different!

I have already put in motion the makings of a content calendar. I’m using the template made available by Vertical Measures last year in their Developing Your Editorial Content Calendar For 2013 post over on MarketingLand.

This template is so great. I’ll be able to keep track of industry events, pitch and deck deadlines, blog deadlines, as well as other content creation deadlines for videos and publications. The goal is to be so organized that I can easily stay at least 30-days ahead of myself in terms of completed and scheduled content.
Of course, part of my problem is procrastination so wish me luck on this one…I’m gonna need it!

Excel

The second thing I’m working on this year is continued excel mastery. I am constantly amazed at how much easier my job would be if I had John Gagnon level excel expertise.

…I’d be unstoppable…

iStock_superhero

Really though, the amount of time spent analyzing data would be cut in half and I’d be able to answer complicated questions much easier if I could master this tool.

In 2013 I mastered the pivot table and figured out vlookup. This year I want to be quicker at my recall of how to answer questions with excel. Half of my problem seems to be trying to figure out which feature or command to use before I even get started.

So here is the start of my “Master Excel Resources List”.  I’ll be dedicating two hours each week to reading and practicing with the help of these links. If you know of others please let me know!

By this time next year I will be able to hang with the John Gagnon’s of the world when it comes to excel.

What are you working on this year? I’d love to hear where you plan to grow professionally. Good luck with your goals and Happy New Year!

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Meet Heather

Hi! I'm Heather, welcome to my little corner of the interwebs where I talk about holistic wellness, healing, and food as medicine.

I'm a lot of things! I'm a vulvar cancer survivor, marketing consultant, entrepreneur, autoimmune warrior, nutrition therapy student, wellness educator, and rebel. :)

I'm on a mission to educate the world about nutrition for chronic illness and autoimmune disease and help you feel better and live life on your terms!

Learn More About Heather

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