EGGS-ACTLY
- By Green Rocks Fitness
- •
- 14 Jul, 2016
- •
What YOU need to know about EGGS
“Naturally grown free-range chickens used to be favored, because they could eat anything they wanted, but now eggs laid by factory chickens, eating an industrial corn-and-soy diet, are from “vegetarian chickens,” because the marketers know the public will favor eggs that have the vegetarian mystique.” – Raymond Peat, PhD
The best quality eggs are from chickens that have sunlight and access to roam outside, eating bugs and pasture. A happy chicken is a healthy chicken, and a healthy chicken produces healthy eggs for us to eat. A good label to read on egg cartons is the phrase "Pasture Raised". This usually ensures that the chicken is eating grass and bugs on the pasture. A great added bonus is to see that the farms are not feeding their chickens corn or soy. The farmers usually promote this on the egg cartons saying corn free and/or soy free.
"When you see "vegetarian fed" chicken products, the manufacturer is broadcasting their inferiority to pasture-raised eggs." – Rob Turner (Functional Performance Systems)
"One of the points I always try to convey when I host farm tours at Polyface Farm is that chickens are omnivores. Visitors have no problem with the fact that pastured poultry eat lots of green grass, herbs and clover, but cringe at the notion that these beautiful, healthy birds also supplement their diet with plenty of animal foods as well. In the green season, the birds eat lots of grasshoppers and fly larvae (out of the cow pies).
But what happens when the chickens go indoors for the winter, and insect life is all but nonexistent except for the occasional pill bug and spider in the deep bedding material? Traditionally this is when farm flocks were supplemented with vermin, cut open for easier access to the internal organs. Chickens gladly and voraciously tear at the flesh and guts of a freshly shot groundhog, opossum or raccoon. Chickens have a featherless face for a reason—it is easier to keep clean after indulging in flesh. We see the same physiology in wild avian scavengers like vultures."[1]
"Large-scale organic and free-range egg producers love to advertise the “vegetarian-fed” status of their birds. Certainly, a vegetarian-fed chicken does not have access to insects or it would lose the privilege of this label. We can also assume that no access to insects means no access to pasture, little to no access to the outdoors, or, worst of all, continuous confinement.
Unfortunately, the vegetarian feeding regimen of organic and free-range poultry induces a paler, weaker egg yolk than their omnivorous, beyond-organic counterparts. There is absolutely nothing natural about a vegetarian-fed chicken, and to be sure, the nutrient profile of eggs and meat from birds fed this way is going to be far inferior to birds with access to insects and meat scraps. Traditional farm flocks were often kept solely to consume the family’s kitchen waste— much of which was meat and scraps of fat."[1]
Why is it so important that the eggs we eat come from healthy pasture raised chickens?
"The omnivore's fatty acid composition is reflected by their diet. Omnivorous poultry and pig fat tissue are more unsaturated relative to a pastured animal when fed the industrialized diet rich in unsaturated oils. Herbivores like cows, buffalo, goat, and lamb detoxify the unsaturated oils in the diet rather efficiently but do so best when fed a natural diet." – Rob Turner (Functional Performance Systems)
The above quote means that a chicken's diet influences the make up and quality of the eggs that the chicken lays.
How do we know for sure what the chicken is eating and how they are living?
Get to know where your food is coming from! The best way to know the quality of the eggs you are eating is to talk to the farmer whose eggs you are buying. Call the distributor of the eggs you buy from the store, talk to the store personnel, and read the packaging.
The East End Food Co-op displays the quality of the eggs they sell, allowing customers to know what the animals are being fed, how they are being raised, and what farm they come from so that people can contact the farmer(s) directly for more information.
Whole Foods Market also has good quality eggs to choose from along with information to learn more about the farm and their products. Farmer's markets are another great place to ask questions to find quality animal products.
“There can be a great difference between eggs from chickens that really have adequate pasture, and the standard ones, but the labels aren’t likely to contain enough information. ‘Organic-free range’ chickens in the US are usually fed soy and corn in a crowded outdoor pen. In the US I seldom eat more than one large egg per day, in Mexico where I know where the chickens live and what they eat, I eat more of them.” – Raymond Peat, PhD
1. Chickens Are Omnivores: It’s No Dilemma by Matt Rales
2. The Story of an Egg
3. Ray Peat on chicken eggs. #2
4. Picture from: stockvault.
If you want to lose weight, go restrict your calories, over train doing cardio, be miserable, lose your period, forget your libido, feel like shit but be happy because you lost 10 pounds of ... muscle, tissue, bone and a little bit of fat. But in the process you created dysfunction, facilitated disease, and potentially will experience a rebound (more fat gain while having less muscle) in the near future.
Let's slowly reverse what we have been doing and form new habits, new behaviors, new standards together. We have to be honest with each other and ourselves and until we are, don't expect to get anywhere other than where you have already been.
“We Generate Fears While We Sit. We Overcome Them By Action.”
~Dr. Henry Link
Action
Changes
Things
I cannot say enough great things about working for Green Rocks Fitness! The environment, the staff/owner, and the awesome members/clients and people we interact and work with each day just make it all so great! The health and goals of our clients are as important to us as our very own! That's why we facilitate a space where we can both share and communicate valid information about health and fitness, as well as put it into practice through action! Change is not only dependent on having direction and purpose, but also on taking steps toward the manifestation of our goals into reality!
What do we mean when we say "Set Yourself Up For Success"?
For us, a typical morning starts off with waking up and eating breakfast. It is very important to start the day off with a balanced (tailored to your ratio demands of sugar, protein, and fat) breakfast, after fasting all night while sleeping! After breakfast, Melissa and I come to the Green Rocks Fitness office (located at 401 Shady Avenue G-100, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 in the Kenmawr Apartments building) where we work with clients, and work on the business by writing content, filming videos, and doing research to further help both our clients and ourselves. We have a refrigerator where we can store our refreshments and the food that we bring with us. This enables us to work longer without having to leave the premises to go eat, which as we have learned, really sets us up for progress with finishing tasks. When you are in the zone and really tackling projects, having to stop because you are really hungry puts a huge damper on productivity! As we educate and tell all of our clients, eating throughout the day is very important and should not be neglected when it comes to our health, wellbeing, and productivity!
Portable Burner and Mini-Oven
Sometimes we need or prefer to heat/cook certain foods! We purchased a mini-oven and intended to order a portable burner so that we can bring the food from home and have it stored in the office refrigerator.Problem solved! I was telling one of our clients this and she was so inspired by the idea of this whole concept that she purchased the burner for us right there on the spot. We were greatly surprised to say the least, and I couldn't thank her enough for her kind gesture! The people we work with and the sense of community we are building is truly amazing and special! This is exactly what we envision in our business, but I will talk more in-depth about that in another post. This burner allows us to cook food during our days at the office in order to stay properly fed and regulate our blood sugar throughout the day, while being able to stay at work for different tasks and projects. We would like to have a kitchen in our new storefront (in the future) so that we can provide these services to our clients, but I will talk more about that in my vision article!
Coffee and Tea Machine
Our clients are all about having coffee regularly, and rightfully so! Coffee, when used properly, offers many great benefits! Most people "do coffee" wrong, as we point out in our blog article, Benefits of Coffee. Most times, our clients get coffee from less than ideal sources, and the ingredients they put into the coffee is of poor quality. That is where a good thing turns into a bad thing! We offer good quality milk with the right types of sugars, and even mix in some gelatin
( purchase here
) for some beneficial protein.
What does setting up for success mean to you?
Whether it is going to sleep 5 to 15 minutes earlier so that you can wake up with time to eat a good breakfast, or preparing foods in advance so that you aren't going long hours without eating, you can take steps using your foresight in order to prevent certain issues from arising and sabotaging your health/fitness goals!
Meal Prepping
Make time during the week to cook and prepare foods so that you don't have to suffer when those busy moments or days hit and you end up resorting to less than ideal meals (or no meals at all.) This can be beneficial for a multiple of reasons! These situations are stressful and can cause blood sugar dysregulation, resulting in sleepless nights (or waking up between 1-4 am,) cravings, irritability, depression, and reduced ability to handle situations, tasks and other stressors. Personally, it's relieving to know I have food already cooked and prepared! I know that if days get busy, or interrupted, I'll be okay knowing my food can be ready at a moments notice.
Summing up
If you know certain things will cause stress, or prevent you from doing what needs to be done, put yourself in a position to win! Set yourself up for success by taking the necessary precautions allowing you to stay on the path that you want to be on! Action! Action! Action! I'll repeat it again... “We Generate Fears While We Sit. We Overcome Them By Action.” –
Dr. Henry Link
This is something we help with for all of our clients! We offer guidance, as well as understanding, in all areas of health and wellness. This includes movement, nutrition, meal plans, mindset, motivation, and tips/tricks to stay the course. If you find yourself struggling in any one (or even all) of these areas, take action NOW and let us help you help yourself!
TIPS:
1. OWN THE MOVEMENT: Never do an exercise with a weight that owns you! This means you are dictating the movement and in control at all times, performing the movement safely and targeting the muscles you want to target. Do not allow the weight to pull you forward without your consent.
This movement can target the thighs more, or the glutes/hamstrings more, depending on the position of your torso (more upright versus more forward/bent over). In this video Melissa is performing the squat to target all of the muscles as a whole. The thighs, the glutes and the hamstrings. Her rear delts and upper back also get worked indirectly from her good posture and by keeping her shoulder blades retracted and chest up: http://bit.ly/2pEVl82
