I am SO excited to be interviewing the author, Jenny Carr, of PEACE OF CAKE. Jenny is a health coach,, a motivational speaker, a mom and an international best selling author. She actually had a near death experience due to chronic illness, survived, and now her passion is walking the talk in regards to anti-inflammatory living. She is both an anti-inflammatory health coach and life coach, intertwining both of these coaching modalities to help people CHANGE THEIR LIVES. I’ll let her share her story but this is a MUST READ! Grab a kombucha and ENJOY!
Jenny! I am so honored to have you on the BRING YOUR OWN KOMBUCHA blog What motivated you to write your best selling book, Peace of Cake?
Jenny Carr: The Secret To An Anti-Inflammatory Diet was written for two major reasons: 1. I had experienced the power of healing and literally regenerating the cells in my body by eliminating inflammation and I wanted to share this technique with the world. So often we feel that our only way out is to take medications or to submit to living with a specific condition, ailment or disease. Time after time my clients have experienced healing and freedom from conditions that were stopping them from living the life they dreamed of, and I want everyone to have access to that information whether they can afford me as a coach or not.
And #2 – walking my talk with integrity while maintaining anti-inflammatory living was a key component for my own personal survival from a near death experience due to a severe parasite infection. The first two chapters of my book talk more about this. Creepy….weird and awesome all at the same time!
Your story is INCREDIBLE. For those who haven’t yet read the book, let’s chat about some basics. What are some foods that cause chronic inflammation and How do you detox from these foods?
Jenny Carr: In my book, I talk about the top 6 inflammatory foods: processed sugar, alcohol, modernized wheat, cow dairy, GMOs and inflammatory oils such as canola oil and vegetable oil, as examples. The key to maintaining an anti-inflammatory diet is to find food swaps that still satisfy your taste buds, fit into your lifestyle all while removing the inflammatory component. For example, instead of eating processed sugar, try unrefined coconut sugar, raw honey or pure maple syrup. Instead of eating cow dairy yogurt, go for a plain sheep or goat yogurt and add flavored liquid stevia (like vanilla creme or lemon) for a sweet and delicious taste, but without the inflammatory aspects. This technique is how not only have I maintained anti-inflammatory eating, but so have my two kids ages 8 and 4.
I LOVE those swaps and I love that you are teaching your kids from a young age. What about us grown ups (haha) who have had sugar and other inflammatory foods our whole lives and just want to minimize the cravings?
Jenny Carr: This is such a good question….and actually easier than one thinks. So it takes approximately 2 weeks to push the inflammation from these top inflammatory foods out of body. During those two weeks – chemical imbalances are extra present due to the inflammatory impact from these foods. The affect of the chemical imbalance is that we crave foods that are not so great for us. Now….if you are eating any of the top inflammatory foods every two weeks or less, your body never has an opportunity to fully push out the inflammation and the cravings simply become more and more intense over time.
So the question becomes….how do we stop this cravings? The answer is three part. #1 – When a craving hits – chug a big glass of water. Drinking water actually helps to stabilize blood sugar levels, and if the craving is taking place because of chemical reactions in your body, this will really help. #2- Eat 20 grams of clean protein (check out the chapter in my book on what constitutes clean protein). This also stabilizes blood sugar levels, fills you up and actually helps to ground you so you can make choices that come from a clear mind. #3 – Give yourself some sort of clean treat. It could be fruit or a healthy sweet treat like my zesty lemon bars, ginger molasses cookies, etc. I have a bunch of recipes in the second half of my book that taste delicious and swap out the top inflammatory foods.
SUCH good advice. Definitely reaching for a glass of water next time I want some sweets! What are some of your favorite anti-inflammatory meals? I’m all about practicality and making it easy peasey to implement these helpful methods.
Jenny Carr: I like to keep things SUPER simple in my house. While I love to make recipes (simple ones only of course), my week to week meals honestly take even less time than following a recipe. At our home, we eat grass fed or free-range meat and I do find that having cooked protein on hand takes a bit more time than grabbing a healthy carb or fat, so I cook in big batches each week. For example, this week I made 4 pounds of muffin tin meatballs, which can be eaten on their own along with some avocado, fruit or brown rice. Because I made so many muffin tin meatballs, I can use some of them to make spaghetti with meat sauce, or I could add them into an egg omelet. The key here is to find one or two proteins that I can cook in a large batch and then turn into different recipes for the week. I could even make a taco salad with the leftover meat that I made this week. I also try to always have a clean sweet treat on hand so that my kids have access to that without feeling deprived from treats that seem to be so prevalent in kids’ lives these days.
SUCH a good meal prep idea! I’ll be breaking out the muffin tins this week. Let’s chat about inflammation. What is the issue with chronic inflammation and why don’t we know more about it?
Jenny Carr: There is acute inflammation, that happens when you break a bone or sprain an ankle. This inflammation actually helps the body heal. It is the chronic inflammation, which has a slow smoldering burn inside that body that causes such harm. Science has proven that chronic inflammation is at the root of nearly all ailments conditions and dis-ease in the body. The inflammation targets the areas which are most susceptible in the body, which can come from genetic predispositions and overuse as examples. Essentially, if you have a chronic symptom/s that show up on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis….more than likely they are caused from chronic inflammation. Even if there is a structural issue in the body, if you have inflammation in the body – it will target the areas you are more susceptible to, which is the structural condition. For example, you may have torn some ligaments in your knee, and while it is mostly healed….it still gives you pain on and off. If you remove the chronic inflammation from the body, the chances of the pain going away are very high.
“What I really want people to know is that they have a choice. They are not “stuck” with an issue or condition. If they remove the chronic inflammation in their body, they are removing the root of the condition and cells can begin to regenerate as they heal.”
This is such powerful information. What advice do you have for other who want to follow an anti-inflammatory lifestyle?
Jenny Carr: It’s all about finding food swaps that satisfy my taste buds, without the inflammatory ingredients AND work into my lifestyle. As I mentioned earlier, my days are busy so knowing what I can buy at the grocery store, cooking in bulk and playing around in the kitchen when I have time absolutely make anti-inflammatory eating a reality in our home.
What is next for Jenny Carr?
Jenny Carr: I am about to write my next book, The Clean Eating Kid. My son had an incredible story of healing through anti-inflammatory eating as well, which has inspired this book. We have maintained anti-inflammatory eating for 7 years for him, now and have figured out how to do that in a way that tastes good to him and isn’t overly time consuming for me. There are a few tricks to the trade in supporting your child as they adopt an anti-inflammatory diet without feeling deprived or left out of social functions. Helping the youngest generation gain health is a deep passion and I am absolutely thrilled to be writing my next book about this.
I hope y’all loved this interview with Jenny Carr as much as I did. She is offering her book, Peace of Cake, for FREE by going to http://www.jennycarrhealth.com/.
You can also find Jenny on instagram | twitter | facebook.
xx Erica
