“Sitting Disease” Motivated
Carrie Muraca
to Make a Change with
Garden of Life ® RAW Fit ®
by Rhonda Price
C
arrie Muraca never gave much thought to numerous
studies linking “sitting disease” with obesity, diabetes,
heart disease and a host of other health problems.
At home, she made a conscious effort to spend time outdoors
and not be a couch potato, but, at work, she was barely moving.
As a cardiac monitor tech at a Florida hospital, she worked
the night shift and was required to sit at a desk for hours on end.
Eventually, the inactivity took its toll, and she was diagnosed
with secondary pulmonary hypertension and hypothyroidism.
Her weight also crept up to 300 pounds, and doctors warned
that she would soon be diabetic. The grim news that she was
nearly as sick as her cardiac patients did not go over well
with Carrie, who decided to make a serious effort to reclaim
her health and lose weight.
“A doctor told me that some of her sickest patients were those
who worked the night shift,” Carrie said. “I realized that if I didn’t
take care of myself, I was going to end up in worse shape than
my cardiac patients.”
Deciding that dramatic changes were necessary, Carrie
moved from Florida to Texas and accepted another job.
She learned about Garden of Life from a co-worker who
constantly raved about a protein supplement for weight loss—
RAW Fit. She watched as her co-worker made a smoothie every
day at work with a scoop of RAW Fit. Curious to see if RAW Fit
would work for her, Carrie bought a tub at Sprouts Farmers
Market, her favorite health food store.
“I got the recipe from my friend at work and started
making the smoothie with the same ingredients,” she said.
Even though Carrie was once again working nights,
she found that drinking RAW Fit on the way to work helped
satisfy her hunger for hours. She quickly adopted a habit
of eating a light lunch and discovered she no longer craved
unhealthy snack foods to carry her through long shifts at work.
Encouraged by the noticeable changes, she began making
better food choices and embarked on an exercise routine.
To her surprise, losing weight no longer seemed as difficult
or impossible as it had been in the past.
“I’ve totally changed my habits, and on most days, I eat only
fruits and vegetables,” she said. “I’m not a complete vegetarian
yet, but I’m well on my way to becoming one because I’m losing
my taste for meat and chicken. I love raw veggies, and having
entire meals with just fruit and vegetables is fine with me.”
Carrie also solved her “sitting disease” dilemma
by running every day. She started out slowly
on an elliptical machine, and then switched to a
treadmill. She also found a useful app on her
phone called “Couch to 5K” that helped her
run up to two miles, while gradually increasing distance
and speed. As she stayed with her routine of eating healthy,
supplementing with RAW Fit, and exercising, she lost nearly 50
pounds and several dress sizes in seven months.