Joan and Chris run Tasty Low Carb, a blog recipe and lifestyle blog focussed on the low carb diet. Joan and Chris are converts to the low carb lifestyle as a long term solution to ongoing health problems, and strongly advocate its benefits. Their blog focusses on delicious meals which fit the low carb diet.
Tasty Low Carb runs our Foodica theme with a couple of customizations: note the homepage slider has right-aligned captions, excellent photography across the site and green color scheme. These really make the site fit the brand with a professional, unique look.
We had the pleasure of talking with Chris, co-author of Tasty Low Carb about the diet, running a food blog and – of course – food! Enjoy our conversation.
WPZ: Thanks for joining us! Tell us about Tasty Low Carb: What made you start a food blog?
Chris: Joanie and I both love to cook.Through the years we have shared the task of meal preparation. For us, it is “together time.” When we travel or frequent local restaurants we discuss how we can make our favorite menu items at home. I guess you would say food is our passion!
As we aged, we encountered health problems. In dealing with those concerns, we recognized that we needed to stay healthy to be happy! Chris needed to lose weight and Joanie needed to control her diabetes. We did our research and found that the best way to accomplish those goals was a “low-carb” lifestyle – not just a diet.
We began the process of converting to a low-carb lifestyle. We quickly found out that the only way this change would last would be to make our low-carb meals ‘tasty.” We made our goal to prepare healthy food that tasted great. It worked. We decided to share our recipes and lifestyle to help others avoid the ills associated with high carb and high sugar eating.
Our blog had its identity. Tasty Low Carb – for Health, Happiness, and Life!
WPZ: What’s your “elevator pitch” for a low carb diet? What have been some of the benefits of adopting it?
Chris: If you want to lose weight and keep it off, if you want to control your glucose levels and avoid the ravages of diabetes, then a low-carb lifestyle is for you. In the past 9 months, Chris has lost 38 pounds and cut his blood pressure medicine in half. Joanie finds her blood sugar levels have decreased to a pre-diabetic range. She has not needed insulin or pills.
Study upon study will promote the health benefits of cutting out the breads, the pasta, and all carb-laden and sugar enhanced products. But the best argument is that low-carb food can and does taste great. If you buy the best ingredients and use delicious recipes you will be amazed. All it takes is a lot of “TLC.”
WPZ: One of the standout features of your blog is the excellent photography. How do you approach food blog photography?
Chris: The key is preparation. Although the purpose of each photo is to focus on the food, using planned sets and props will enhance that final shot. We set up our shoot in advance, using different backgrounds, dishes, and props. We adjust the lighting before the food is even cooked. Our end goal is always the same – make the food “pop” and look good enough to eat! Once the set has been finalized adding the food is easy.
We also spend more time in developing the finished photos than we do actually shooting. We shoot “RAW” and then adjust the lighting and white balance on the computer.
We are not professionals, either in the kitchen or behind the camera, but we do pay attention to detail and learn with each post.
WPZ: How do you find new recipe ideas? Is everything you cook a candidate for the blog?
Chris: We find recipes everywhere. From television to social media, to old cookbooks, and our recipe files gathered through the years; we have a wealth of recipes. We adapt these to make them low in carbs and “tasty.” Before we post any recipe we must both agree it passes the “tasty” test!
WPZ: Tasty Low Carb runs our Foodica theme and looks fantastic. How important has it been to have the right theme?
When we started, we spent a lot of time evaluating themes to get the right one. We found that with Foodica from WPZOOM!
We wanted flexibility within our theme and one that would allow us to use our creativity within the structure of a traditional food blog. We wanted color and “pop” and the opportunity to add plugins that would allow our followers to enjoy the site and share our recipes on social media. Foodica provided that and more.
We could not have done any of this without the theme and those behind it. We knew enough about food, photography, and writing. But, we knew virtually nothing about themes, code, and how to move our website from an idea to reality. In the past five months the staff at WPZOOM has helped us make our Foodica theme into a professional looking blog site. The theme is important, but the developers are even more important to success. We received so much help from Ina at WPZOOM – she is the best!
WPZ: What advice would you give to would-be food bloggers?
Chris: Our advice would be to be passionate about your food, pay attention to the preparation in setting up your photo shoots, spend a lot of time in developing your photos, work with top notch theme developers, and most of all make your food “tasty low carb.”
Thank you, Chris, for your insightful look at your blog, the low carb diet and food philosophy! We hope you’ll continue to enjoy the Foodica theme for a very long time indeed.
Are you doing amazing work with a WPZOOM theme? Get in touch, we’d love to talk for a future case study!
July 11, 2017 7:10 am
I just Visited tasty low carb website. Awesome design. Thanks WPzoom for Foodica theme.
September 2, 2017 5:24 pm
The website looks really nice. I will consider using the Foodica theme for my pizza blog.