Liver: Natures Greatest Supplement
- By Green Rocks Fitness
- •
- 25 Aug, 2016
- •
“Using foods as supplementation should be the foundation to any healing process. FRESH, ORGANIC, GRASS-FED beef or chicken liver, prepared in manner supportive to digestive abilities, offers up a multitude of vitamins and minerals including: Vitamin A, D, E, C, all your B Vitamins, magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium, phosphorus, copper, selenium and zinc! I realize not everyone is a fan of liver but there are many approaches to doing this. It is worth exploring what might work for you.”[1]
WHY SHOULD I CONSUME LIVER?
• HELPS ELIMINATE CRAVINGS- Incorporating liver into an already diverse nutrition plan can help those that suffer with cravings. When the body isn’t receiving enough B vitamins, cravings can come about and usually in the form of things that may not be the most ideal for us, such as grains and starches. Eating (supplementing) liver can help alleviate such cravings.
• METABOLISM, IMMUNE SYSTEM, ENERGY AND HEALTHY FAT LOSS- Liver is great to assist in jump starting the metabolism, which will help improve your body's immune system. The B vitamins help a great deal with restoring your natural energy levels by shutting down the stress response and not running on stress hormones. This will allow the body to lose fat in a much safer and healthier way.
• TRACE MINERALS FOR THE THYROID- Liver contains trace minerals such as copper and selenium which enables you to turn t4 into t3 (thyroid hormone.)
• HELPS COMBAT STRESS- “When animals on seemingly adequate diets are submitted to stress, widespread damage occurs in their bodies. If these animals, however, are given fresh or dried liver or a crude liver concentrate, little harm is done. For example, when the strength of animals was tested by making them swim in ice water, the animals on ‘normal’ diets could swim only three to ten minutes before drowning; animals given the same diet fortified with liver swam two hours or longer and lived to swim again.
"When liver is given, the harmful effects of such stressor agents as atabrine, excessive amounts of the thyroid hormone or milk sugar, extreme heat or cold, lack of oxygen, X-rays, and various drugs have been prevented or decreased. Animals subjected to stress but not given liver often die unexpectedly, apparently of heart failure, although they may have all the outward appearances of good health. Liver of all varieties appears to be the richest source of the antistress vitamins…”[2]
LIVER TASTES TERRIBLE, WHAT CAN I DO?
I do not recommend eating any food to someone who cannot stomach it or enjoy it, regardless of how great of a food it may be for you. Forcing yourself to do something you truly hate causes stress, and if that's the case for you then perhaps the benefits do not outweigh the cost.
The following are some tips to help fall in love with the taste of liver:
• THE PRINCIPLE OF 3: I recommend trying a food at least three times before giving it up. Sometimes it can take time to “acquire” a taste or liking for certain foods. Usually after the third time of trying a food, if you still do not like it, then you probably wont change. Sometimes I give myself a range of three to five times, just to be sure. This never fails.
• PREPARE IT DIFFERENTLY AND/OR COMBINE WITH OTHER FOODS: People who can’t stomach the taste of liver on its own sometimes fall in love with it by combining it with ground beef. Mixing them together can mask the distinct taste of the liver, and even adding spices with it sometimes makes it more enjoyable (ex. Liver and Beef Chili.) Another option is mixing it with your favorite fruits and veggies. A mixture of cooked apples and potatoes seems helpful to some. Try other combinations that sound appealing to you.
• LIVER PATE: Liver pate is a mixture of cooked ground meat and fat minced into a spreadable paste. Common additions include vegetables, herbs, spices.
• LIVER PILLS: Because liver really is natures greatest supplement, some people who can’t quite stomach the taste or smell of it, encapsulate it, and freeze it into small liver tablets to swallow so that they can get the nutrients, vitamins and minerals in some way.
- How much sun is being received.
- How much vitamin A is needed.
- What other foods are being consumed.
- How you feel after eating a certain amount.
- Whether you need more or less in a weeks time period.
[1] Facebook post about liver by EastWest Healing ►
http://bit.ly/25UstIs
[2] Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit by Adelle Davis (1954)
[3] Liver Pate: Natures Superfood by EastWest Healing ►
http://bit.ly/1Yj6xV2
[4] Healthy Food Idea - Liver by EastWest Healing ►
http://bit.ly/24JdXB2
[5] Ray Peat Inspired Nutrition - Beef Liver by Danny Roddy (The Danny Roddy Weblog) ►
http://bit.ly/1UcuCtY
By Gregory
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
