Barrel Smoker + A Healthy Lifestyle

OUTDOOR COOKING LIFESTYLE

If you are looking to eat healthier meals, or just add more variety and flavor to your diet, the Pit Barrel® Cooker has you covered. We designed the Pit Barrel® to be the most versatile drum smoker ever and to give any type of food a unique and delicious flavor that will elevate any recipe. If you aren't interested in diets, these recipes are sure to impress nonetheless. 

Barrel cookers are perfect for meal prepping so you can cook food in advance for many meals throughout the week. Meal prepping has become a popular way for making healthy meals easier and with less hassle. For example, cook a large brisket in your drum smoker or barrel grill and you will have flavorful meat ready to be used throughout the week in meals like  Pulled Pork Sandwiches, tacos, chili, or even on top of pizza!

The New Year has just arrived and the most popular new year's resolution is the goal of healthy living and weight loss. Weight loss can be difficult to achieve for a lot of reasons, but we want to share some tips and tricks so you can add Pit Barrel® flavor to any health journey you choose. 

Improving your health is not an easy task or one-size-fits-all. This is why diets are often unsuccessful because they are said to be unsustainable or not nutritionally sound. Fad diets become popular because they promise easy and fast weight loss but can be difficult to maintain and keep the weight off. 

A healthy lifestyle change has become the go-to advise for those wanting to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. These lifestyle changes create new healthy habits that teach you how to manage your weight for long term health results rather than quick outcomes that could result in gaining weight back. 

In recent years, the keto lifestyle has become a popular choice for those wanting to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. The keto lifestyle is essentially a low-carb, high-fat diet, where a person gets the majority of their calories from fats and protein which can help them stay healthy. It involves drastically reducing your intake of carbs by staying under 20-50 net carbs per day and replacing them with fat. This change leads to the metabolic state called ketosis. 

What is ketosis? 

Ketosis occurs when the body begins to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Carbohydrates from foods are usually converted to glucose, which is used as a source of energy for the body. When carbohydrates are restricted, your body will instead convert its existing fat stores into fatty acids and ketones, which replace glucose as an energy source.

Bottom line is, reaching ketosis helps your body burn fat stores more efficiently. 

What can I expect? 

When starting the keto lifestyle, you should expect to be in ketosis 24–48 hours after starting (depending on your carb intake). Your body might feel off at the start due to what some call the, "keto flu". This is your body adjusting to the major nutritional change. This should pass within a week, depending on how quickly your body adjusts to the new lifestyle. Your gut biome might also be off if you don't get enough fiber, so be sure to increase your consumption of high-fiber and low-carb vegetables to prevent this. You will most likely not experience the same keto journey as your colleague or neighbor as all bodies are react differently to nutritional changes. Some starting the keto lifestyle think it is a breeze and feel better than ever, whereas others feel tired even after weeks of adjusting. Listen to your body! With the ketogenic lifestyle, kidneys excrete more electrolytes and water, so it’s easy to get dehydrated. Make sure to drink plenty of water and get enough sodium. 

What are the health and weight loss benefits? 

• When people cut carbohydrates, they tend to experience a very dramatic reduction in blood triglycerides. 
• High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is often called the “good” cholesterol. The higher your levels of HDL relative to “bad” LDL, the lower your risk of heart disease. One of the best ways to increase “good” HDL levels is to eat fat, which is the theme of the keto lifestyle. 
• Low-carb and ketogenic lifestyles can also be particularly helpful for people with diabetes and insulin resistance, which affect millions of people worldwide. Studies prove that cutting carbs lowers both blood sugar and insulin levels drastically. If you take blood sugar medication, talk to your doctor before making changes to your carb intake, as your dosage may need to be adjusted to prevent hypoglycemia.
• Low-carb diets are an effective way to lower blood pressure, which should reduce your risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and kidney failure and help you live longer. Very low-carb and ketogenic diets are now being studied for other brain conditions as well, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease
• Significant weight loss. Depending on your current size, you are likely to lose 10 pounds or more, in the first month on the ketogenic diet. Much of this will occur in the first week as you lose water weight from the lack of carbohydrates you consume. However, the weight loss following that is true fat loss due to being in ketosis. 
• Check out more benefits from Healthline, Harvard or a google search!

Bottom line is, a keto lifestyle is beneficial for many reasons and can help you achieve a weight loss goal while also feeling healthier than ever. 

How can the PBC help me? 

The Pit Barrel® is a must if you want to start a ketogenic diet or if you have been living the keto lifestyle for years. The Pit Barrel® Cooker is a drum smoker and barrel grill that can vertically hang meat for Smoked Sausage and Smoked Tri Tip or be used like a grill for Grilled Steaks, Burgers, or Crispy Smoked Chicken Wings. It's versatility is one-of-a-kind and can make cooking hassle-free to produce amazing results every time. 

You can plan ahead with amazing Pit Barrel® keto recipes and cook an entire week's worth of food in one cook in your drum smoker. This makes it easy to stay on track so that you have flavorful meals prepped and ready to go, perfect for a hectic and busy lifestyle. You can Hook 'N Hang your meat(s) of choice and use our All-Purpose Basket Hanger or Hinged Grill Grate to cook some delicious tasting low-carb vegetables. 

 The keto lifestyle has helped many live happier, healthier lives and it is a great option for those looking to make a healthy lifestyle change. 

Check out our friend Travis Major's keto journey and how he lost 178 lbs with his Pit Barrel® Classic. He has been living a ketogenic lifestyle that has helped him stay happy and healthy, all while cooking delicious food and creating amazing keto recipes.  

Excerpt:  

"The PBC was a huge factor in my weight loss journey. BBQ and Keto go hand-in-hand like best friends. I have always loved BBQ and have always been confident in the kitchen but using the PBC was a whole new world. I also discovered that BBQ restaurants are sometimes very expensive and use sauces and ingredients that are not keto friendly - and that was what I was really needing at the time. Keto is structured for high fat, moderate protein and little to no carbs.  Sometimes I would order brisket and it was bathed in BBQ sauce which went against what I was trying to do and needed to reach my goal of weight loss. I set out to learn how to do it myself to save money and make sure that it was prepared in a keto style that would benefit me the most. As I began to learn myself, I started meal prepping and using all of these fatty proteins that I had BBQ’d over the weekend to provide what I needed throughout the week and BANG! I started really rolling and getting into a more sustainable groove."  

Click here to read more of his story. 

 

 

If you aren't interested in the keto lifestyle or you are just looking to eat healthier meals cooked on a drum smoker or barrel grill, we have some great recipes for you. The keto lifestyle, or diets in general, are not for everyone. If you are looking for a light meal that won't weigh you down, we have recipes that will impress. 

If you're looking for a light meal with delicious flavor, fish cooked in the Pit Barrel® is easy to prepare and tastes like no fish you have ever tasted. Pit Barrel® gives a slight smoky flavor to salmon, trout, sea bass, or any choice of fish that you can't replicate roasting in an oven or cooking on a gas grill. Pair your fish with tender smoked asparagus or a crunchy side salad and you have a winning meal. 

Try one of our seafood recipes below for when you're looking for something tasty, easy, and nutritious to cook on your Pit Barrel®. 

Vegetables cooked on the Pit Barrel® are one-of-a-kind. Ordinary cauliflower becomes an extraordinary cauliflower steak and crisp sliced vegetables transforms into a slightly smoky take on the traditional French ratatouille recipe. Try cooking your favorite vegetables on your Pit Barrel® and you will be impressed with the new flavors you can create.