Care for a Carrot?
- By Green Rocks Fitness
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- 21 Jul, 2016
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A Daily Carrot!
One very special food that we recommend to all of our clients to incorporate into their eating habits right away is a daily carrot. Everything else can be integrated at a later date, but just adding a daily raw carrot, even if everything else remains unchanged, can provide a world of benefit. It is simple and does not require a lot of time or effort.
A daily carrot | carrot salad aids the body in its natural detoxification process. Carrots are a root vegetable, and root vegetables that live underground fight bacteria, parasites and fungi. When you consume a raw carrot daily, it acts like a natural antibiotic that can help fight any bacteria over growth in the digestive system. The fibers in a raw carrot also bind to and eliminate unused hormones like estrogen.
Don't believe us? Here is a kind and cool testimonial from Erin:
"I met with Melissa, and after one conversation, she encouraged me to start eating one whole, organic carrot every day before lunch. We talked about hormone imbalances in the body, and I am someone who has been suffering with this for many years. When I was 14 I was diagnosed with poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, and have had many symptoms since including chronic headaches, cysts that burst, and painful periods. I was eating my daily carrot for a little over two weeks, and was surprised by my period because I had NO WARNING SYMPTOMS. Not one cramp. This was HUGE and brought about by one small dietary change! And I can't thank Melissa and her team enough for helping me begin my journey to better health since that first meeting. They are worth their weight in gold, talk to Melissa about the carrot!!
Seriously thank you!"
"Many people find that the daily use of a raw carrot eliminates their PMS, headaches, allergies, eliminates constipation, acne and bloating and other symptoms relating to hormonal imbalances. What is even more amazing is how quickly this can take place, but we will warn you – it might take a few days for your GI system to adapt to the raw carrot. Not to be misleading, just like anything else, the raw carrot is not considered a magic pill but can be used very effectively along with a balanced diet. “More is better” is also a motto we strongly encourage you to reconsider. Although carrots are a great source of beta-carotene, the ability of the body to convert this to vitamin A is limited when thyroid function is less then optimal. Low thyroid function is intimately related with hormonal imbalances, meaning you cannot have one without the other. Additionally, the excess build up of beta-carotene in the tissues can lead to further interference of vitamin A conversion, place a toxic load on the thyroid and interfere with progesterone synthesis. So if you notice you are turning into an Oompa Loompa, you may be overdoing it! Issues converting beta-carotene can result in orange calluses and under more extreme conditions, a yellowish-orange tint to the skin."[2]
If you find that making the carrot salad is too time consuming, then just eat the carrot. The important part is to incorporate a daily carrot. The carrot salad recipe has added benefit, and will give you the most bang for your buck but eating the carrot alone is still very beneficial. The coconut oil and vinegar act as mild germicides and are used to intensify the bowel-cleansing effect of the salad.
Eating the carrot with a meal could interfere with the absorption of vitamins and minerals from other foods. However, for those of you who struggle with hypoglycemia, eating the carrot with your meal, and in combination with additional root vegetables or fruit, is what we recommend to clients to avoid hypoglycemic reactions.
1 grated medium carrot (grating the carrot length-wise will increase its antiseptic properties)
0.5 - 1 tsp. of organic white vinegar or some people use raw apple cider vinegar, and/or lemon juice
Pinch of Mortons Canning and Pickling salt to taste
Where To Find Quality Carrots (and other produce)
Located in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, we have access to a bunch of great produce and food. The East End Food Coop and Whole Foods Market carry great quality medium-large carrots as well of a bunch of other food that we recommend to our clients.
"There are interesting associations between vegetable “fiber” and estrogens. Because of my own experience in finding that eating a raw carrot daily prevented my migraines, I began to suspect that the carrot fiber was having both a bowel-protective and an antiestrogen effect. Several women who suffered from premenstrual symptoms, including migraine, had their serum estrogen measured before and after the “carrot diet,” and they found that the carrot lowered their estrogen within a few days, as it relieved their symptoms."[3]
4. Ray Peat, PhD on the Benefits of the Raw Carrot by Rob Turner (Functional Performance Systems)
5. Ray Peat Inspired Nutrition - Carrot Salad by Danny Roddy
6. The Benefits of a Raw Carrot Salad Recipe by EastWest Healing
7. Image Credit
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
