Friday Feature: Protect Yourself from Meat

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

I know it’s the fourth Friday, but this week I wanted to say more about eating meat. Look next week for Friday Feature: Roundup Seven, this month’s installment of a compilation of links from around the Web that speak to the same subjects I have discussed in my Friday Feature posts.

Cutting meat out of your diet is not for everyone. I told you that God told me to cut the meat. But even if you continue to have meat in your diet beware of risks associated with doing so, like having slower digestion and additional effects (hormonal and otherwise) on your body from artificially fattened livestock. God did not forbid the eating of meat for believers, but I can confidently say that the meat in Jesus’ day did not have the contaminants we have to contend with in our meat supply today. So, all you carnivores, protect yourself by doing the following:

Limit your consumption. Try to only eat meat a few times a week, like on weekdays. You can also limit your portions each time you consume it. Another idea would be to choose a weekly ounce quota, like only 9 ounces of beef per week. Once you reach your limit, no more meat for you.

Select safe choices—Choose Kosher, Amish or organic meats. Kosher animals have to be killed according to Jewish dietary laws, which include the animal being healthy before being killed. For the most part, Amish chickens (if raised the traditional Amish way) have not been injected with any chemicals, like preservatives, and have been given low-fat feed to give you more meat and less fat. Organic means animals were given organic feed and not given antibiotics or hormones.

Prepare safe meat.

• Remove skin and fat. Eating skin and fat increases your chances of high cholesterol and puts extra fat in your body.
• Clean meats with food grade hydrogen peroxide. As I have written before, this decontaminates your meat.
• Cook meats well. You have seen the warnings at the bottom of restaurant menus. Many food-borne diseases are eliminated with high temperatures, but eating undercooked meats puts you at risk for catching these diseases.

As always, my goal is to educate you concerning natural ways I have learned to care for my body. Please pray for the Lord to direct you concerning your health. We only have one life to live and we must redeem the time that we have to be fit to do God’s work on the earth. Make a healthy choice today.

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: Roundup Three

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Today I bring you news from around the web on coconut oil, sugar alternatives and the dangers of hydrogenated oils.

Coconut Oil @livingmaxwell.com, presented by “a regular person who decided to take his physical and mental health into his own hands.”

Coconut Palm Sugar @livingmaxwell.com

The Harmful Effects of Sugar and Choosing Healthy Alternatives (including Xylitol)@naturalnews.com

Why Hydrogenated Oils Should be Avoided at All Costs Great, easy to understand article (though, I must admit, I have not fully studied the references to Chinese medicine) @naturalnews.com

Compiled by Rhonda J. Smith

Friday Feature: The Benefits of Juicing

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Because of problems with my website, this post didn’t come through on Friday. Here it is for your good health:

When I was little, school didn’t always come easy to me like with my sister. Sharon could see something and immediately get it. Some concepts just didn’t make sense to me, like long division. I had to work hard to master those difficult areas, but once I got it I got it. I think that’s what has finally happened to me with juicing.

Juicing has been beneficial to me in so many ways. About four years ago I planned to make juicing a daily part of my diet. Examining my progress, I probably have juiced for a total of about a half a year over the last four years. Yup, pretty pitiful when I know that I always look and feel better when I juice. But this week, I have juiced a total of six out of seven days, something I have not ever done, and I feel great. I think this is my master week and I hope I am committed for life.

To help you get committed for life (a lifetime) and life (prosperous health), let me share with you a few benefits of juicing:

Get in your daily requirement of fruits and vegetables. With the change in government recommendations, we should be eating about 2 ½ cups of vegetables and 1 ½ cups of vegetables for a total of at least a total of five. Most of us don’t have the time or desire to eat that amount. When I juice I get in at least eight fruits and veggies a drink.

Get nutrients quickly into your body. It doesn’t take long for your body to digest juice so the nutrients get in your bloodstream faster.

Have more energy. When you get juice in your system quickly you get energy faster and you have it longer because your body is not working overtime to digest heavy foods. This is energy you can use to get your work done.

Consume less calories without receiving less nutrients. When you juice you are not consuming the bulk you would when eating fruits and vegetables. Also, juicing fills you up so you won’t have room to eat as much solid food. You also get the nutrients that are killed with cooked food.

Detoxify while getting nutrients. Sometimes people like to do water only fasts. This definitely helps to detoxify your system, but a juice fast is gentler on your system, detoxifying a little slower while still feeding your cells God’s goodness.

Have an internal and external skin tonic. Juicing cleanses your organs, operating as an internal tonic. When your inside is clean, your outside beams. So, essentially, the internal tonic provides an external tonic effect.

Give your digestive system a rest. As stated earlier, when you juice your digestive system doesn’t have to work as hard. Juicing helps your parts recover from their normal hard work.

Preserve your body’s enzymes. When you juice you get a number of enzymes to help your body digest foods. Without adding enzymes, your body will tap into its reserve, depleting your natural levels. Enzymes also seem to help slow the aging process (Gabriel Cousens, M.D. in Power Juices Super Drinks, by Steve Meyerowitz).

As always, there is much more I could say, but I hope this inspires you to do further research so your body will be at its optimum so you can complete the optimum amount of work for the Kingdom of God.

Friday Feature: Crucify Yourself

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Rhonda J. Smith

Many Christians are in the midst of crucifying their flesh, observing Lent by sacrificing their normal indulgences in honor of Jesus, the one crucified so we might live. But what happens after Lent? What happens after any season of fasting, of giving up anything that has kept us from thriving? Many of us go back to our normal routines and pick back up the normal consequences, like weight gain, a blotched complexion and other maladies from poor eating. But if you regularly incorporate cruciferous vegetables into your diet, you will see a huge difference in your digestion and complexion.

Cruciferous literally means “cross-shaped” and refers to “a group of vegetables—including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, and rutabagas—that have characteristic cross-shaped blossoms and that contain substances that may help to prevent colon cancer.”* Collard and mustard greens are also in this family. Dr. Don Colbert in Toxic Relief says these vegetables contain powerful phytonutrients (plant nutrients) that help the liver detoxify chemicals and drugs. They are best eaten raw or steamed. I know those of you who like to boil all the bright color out of your greens don’t want to hear about eating them raw or steamed so here are some things I do with my cruciferous vegetables instead of boiling them:

Juice them
You have to play with the combinations or you’ll think you are eating dirt (I had plenty of falls and ate mud pies when I was a child so I do know what dirt tastes like). Make sure you add an apple to help sweeten your combination.

Soup them
When you juice these vegetables add a clove or two of garlic with it then warm it up (but don’t boil it). You’ll have a nice tasty soup.

Stir-Fry them
Use a little Extra-virgin olive oil on low to medium heat (this oil can’t stand up to high temperatures) to first sauté some onions and maybe some bell peppers and then add any or a mixture of the vegetables with whatever seasoning you wish. I usually only add a little salt and pepper because the onions and oil give the vegetables a good flavor.

Stir-Fry and Steam them
For my greens and cabbage, I first sauté some fresh onions, garlic and a small de-seeded jalapeño pepper in some olive oil. Then I add the vegetables with my seasonings and cover the pot, which releases the water from the vegetables and steams them. You must use a non-stick sauce pan or your food will burn.

Just like Jesus died so we might live, let’s eat the cruciferous vegetables He put on earth so we might live vibrant lives. When you know better so you got to do better.

*Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 3rd Edition, by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC and James F. Balch, M.D.