Friday Feature: Ajene Gailliard

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

This had been a long time coming, this breaking of sorts serving to tear down and root out what was keeping her down. For years she resisted the knock, ignored the chisels and the cracks, would start afresh and then go back to her own way. Her name really isn’t that important as her story mirrors our lives at one time or another, maybe even now. But I want to tell you her name so you know who is gaining victory over her flesh to seek the best—naturally—that God has for her.

Eat Well Live Well t-shirt winner Ajene Gailliard

Meet Ajene Gailliard, Musings of a (Recovering) Strong Black Woman Eat Well Live Well t-shirt giveaway winner, wife and mom of four, and a Spirit-filled Christian who blogs at Kingdom Mommy. The following is largely her words, presented here to spur you on your quest to heal yourself naturally:

I come from a family of very diseased people. I was faced with my mother’s health challenges: lupus, brain tumor, a lot of other issues and diabetes. I saw her in and out of the hospital, back and forth to the doctor, pill bottle upon pill bottle.

I didn’t have any health issues until college when I broke out in hives. The doctor couldn’t explain it.

I gained 50 lbs in my master’s degree program; it was a 10 month program. I had a health challenge that didn’t get any better and doctors said could only be cured with surgery. I read Patient Heal Thyself, by Jordan Rubin. A co-worker gave me the book. I then started (Rubin’s) The Maker’s Diet. The day I started the diet, I was healed. I had no more pain, no more issues. Obviously it was a supernatural touch from the Lord.

I was committed to losing weight. I went on a liquid diet through my job. I lost weight, but gained 20 lbs back when I got married. My husband and I ate American fare. I skipped the diet. I did a lot of fast food eating when I was pregnant with my oldest child. After I had her, I started having the symptoms (of that major health challenge) again. I knew it was because of my eating. I started The Maker’s Diet again. I fell off. My husband and I saw a documentary about fast food. That was 2005. We haven’t eaten fast food since. We stopped doing the pork. I just didn’t like it. It just didn’t do it for me anymore.

Even with ceasing to eat fast food and pork, Ajene still didn’t get a handle on her diet. While pregnant with her second child, she was put on bed rest so she wasn’t able to exercise or prepare her own foods. After having her second daughter, her symptoms returned yet again. She had a C-section and had just had one 17 months before with her first child. So even after having her second child, exercising was hard. With her health challenges came financial challenges. Her husband wasn’t working full time and Ajene had recently gotten laid off from her job as a social worker, counseling at-risk children and families and conducting a prevention program in the Detroit Public Schools, which she simply loved. She was depressed and discouraged.

I didn’t grow up overweight so (being overweight) was a challenge for me. I began to see the connection between seeking God and exercise. I didn’t have a lot of people in my family who were health nuts so I would be going back and forth, trying to find what worked. I was working with some health pastors, who were helping me but they were manipulative, saying things like ‘You have to serve us.’ That turned into a very devastating experience for me…. That relationship ended. Last year when I went to the doctor in March 2010, feeling led by the Holy Spirit to go (I hadn’t been to a primary care doctor in about four years), I found out I had high cholesterol. I was feeling light-headed. My mind was fuzzy. I went on the strict diet that the health pastors put me on. My cholesterol went down, but I had gained 10 lbs. Wrestling with her weight and the emotional scars from her relationship with the health pastors, Ajene says “I began not to care.” But she could no longer ignore the promptings from the Holy Spirit to trust Him and to change her health habits.

Over the last four months the urging to change has been strong. It’s now been more of a prompting from the Holy Spirit, being aware of what I put in my temple. Before, it was more about the weight. It’s now about health. God showed me that weight was my thorn in the side.

Recently Ajene found out that she had inflammation in her body, and I was led of the Lord to go on the Daniel fast. I had done it before and I would lose weight, even though I wasn’t trying. For the last month I’ve been following this diet. Not only has it been natural, it has been a discipline for me spiritually, to grow up even more. To be in tune with Him. To hear from the Holy Spirit, what He is telling me to eat. Before I would just eat what I wanted. I have to think more and surrender more to the Holy Spirit. We eat every three hours. Imagine how my prayer life has to be. Ajene says now she knows that (w)hatever issue could be developed down the line can be handled if I listen to the Holy Spirit. Before I would get the promptings but I wouldn’t listen. I wouldn’t care because I was so broken. The Lord is showing me that I can eat well if I follow him. It’s been more than just the food, my weight and my health. It’s been about following the Holy Spirit. Not only am I dropping physical weight, I am also dropping spiritual weight. It’s been a journey. I haven’t mastered anything. I’m still working and know we must follow the Holy Spirit in everything we do, even with what we eat.

Follow Ajene at Kingdom Mommy, where she encourages Christian women with young children to raise them to be strong believers in Christ and is currently featuring the series Not So Extreme Couponing to help you navigate the coupon combining world.

Friday Feature: Healing Traditions

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Traditions are good. They mark time and territory, giving identity to who and what’s important. I couldn’t state this a few hours ago when having a birthday lunch with my best friend Nichole. Nichole was telling me that her daughter wanted to know why we go to lunch to celebrate each of our birthdays, just the two of us, annually for as long as we’ve lived in the same city. “It’s tradition,” Nichole told Asha. “But why do you do it?” Nichole repeated Asha’s question to me and we both pondered why. Though we know our times are frill free and no adjustments needed; we can just be and we are “evergreen,” always the same with each other, always enjoying one another, we never thought about why the tradition. But today I know why: when God gives us someone to cherish it’s up to us to make a big fuss to those who matter. We don’t have to create a big deal, but God made us a big deal and I believe we need to honor that about our loved ones. Traditions help us do that. We can make a fuss with time-marked traditions and actions that mark a traditional attitude, like making a habit of consistently bringing joy to others in what we say and do. Traditions can be natural healing balms that no elixirs, food combinations or special herbs could ever bring. And that, Asha, is the reason we have our birthday lunch tradition and why I believe others should have traditions, too.

Tell me in the comments section what some of your healing balm traditions are.

Feature Friday: Vacate

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

One of the best natural remedies for good health is a vacation. That’s where I am today. See you next week.

Friday Feature: Preparing Fresh Blueberries

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Fresh berries are a summer staple and I just can’t get enough of them, particularly blueberries and strawberries. I have them with oatmeal and nuts and in drinks, but if you don’t eat them fast they go bad. And they can be expensive. You probably know this and some of you may avoid buying berries because they do rot fast and can be costly. To have fresh berries at a reasonable cost, stock up on them when they’re on sale and freeze them after cleaning them. I use this method with blueberries:

1 Wash and dry blueberries as you normally do.
2. Place them on a cookie sheet without them touching.
3. Place in freezer and let them remain about an hour.
4. Take cookie sheet out of freezer then place blueberries in a freezer bag.
5. Place berries back in freezer.

As you may have already guessed, using this method helps blueberries not to stick to each other. This way you can get out as many as you want without having to unthaw the entire package. When I used frozen blueberries in hot cereal, like oatmeal, I first run cool water on them to help them unthaw. I also do this if I want to eat them alone. The water must not be hot because hot water unthaws the skin too fast, leaving it tough and hard to chew and shallow. I also eat them frozen and use them in the juicer. I have yet to begin making smoothies but I’ve read so many articles that suggest using frozen fruits in your blended drinks. This way you get a cold drink without diluting the taste of your drink.

Though I haven’t used this method with other berries, like raspberries or strawberries, I think I will and I’ll let you know how they turn out. Even still, go ahead, stock up on fresh berries. They are high in antioxidants and blueberries work well fresh or frozen.

Friday Feature: Eating Healthy Made Easy

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Summer is a great time to boost your nutritional level because of the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables available. Several women in response to my posts on eating raw expressed their desire to do so but listed a host of obstacles to eating healthier, which includes a more plant-based diet full of fresh produce. I addressed the obstacle of cost in my Friday Feature: Ways to Save and Buy on Organic. As each woman explained their obstacles to implementing better health habits their main issue was time. So today I want to deal with the obstacle of time by giving you three ways that have helped me:

Programming—I find it imperative to meditate on God’s word as it relates to healthy eating. My favorite verse is John 4:34: “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him that sent me and to accomplish his work.” This verse speaks of God’s assignment for our lives being that sustaining force in our lives that nourishes and strengthens us and gives us direction for our daily activities. Focusing on God’s will being the strength that I need to do what He has called me to do helps me. First Corinthians 3:16-17 says: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” These scriptures are talking about the body of Christ but apply to us as individual Christians. If we destroy with bad food our temple, the dwelling place of God, our bodies will be destroyed. We will all die one day, but I don’t want to hasten my death. These are the main scriptures that help me program my mind and strengthen my spirit to do what I should for a healthy temple.

Planning—One of the worst things you can do is to have your mind made up to eat right but you don’t have the food purchased to do so. I think about what I want to eat for the week and how much food I will have to buy to execute my meal plans. This helps me not to buy ‘two for one’ when I only need one and get more than my refrigerator or budget will allow. Planning helps me save money and a lot of time. I not only save time in the market but also when I am ready to consume the food.

Preparing—You may have thought my choice to use “consume” instead of “eat” was lofty, but I wanted to include eating and drinking, by way of juicing. So many women have told me that they want to juice but they don’t have a juicer or dread cleaning their juicer after use. Many of you said you don’t have time to clean the fresh produce in order to use them when you want. First, like you save to buy a new dress for a major event, plan to purchase a juicer for your new body. Second, replace a full meal with a fresh juice and some toast. Most times I replace a meal, usually breakfast, with a fresh juice and perhaps some almonds. I am fully nourished and full and haven’t spent a lot of time preparing a meal. The time I would have spent preparing a meal I now use to clean my juicer, which takes no more than 10 minutes. Third, I clean my produce in bulk. Read my post here for how I do that. I set aside time to clean all my items and then store them in plastic bags. When I am ready to prepare a meal or juice, I just grab them and get to work.

I have given you three ways that have helped me but I want you to know that I didn’t incorporate each tip at the same time. As a recovering strong black woman, you know I tried to do them all at the same time. Doing so overwhelmed me so I decided to take one tip at a time, one step before taking the others, and now I do them all without much hesitation.* I want you to take your healthy eating journey one step at a time. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1) You can do this by first renewing your mind. Your body will follow.

*(I love my bulk method, but it can be tedious. I just remind myself of how grateful I am to have fresh, clean produce available when I need it).