Monday, December 5, 2011

Spiritual Spa #11 Grocery Store or Graveyard? That is the question...

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. "

Dear family in the Lord!

As I am writing this I am watching the snow fall outside, leaving the cars, the parking lot and the street of our gym covered with a white blanket. The white surface makes everything look clean and shiny. How romantic! I want to sit in front of a cozy fire, hold a hot beverage in my hands and pretend to be a tamed version of the cookie monster (that is if people are around). Yes, I say "pretend", because when I start with one cookie I am undergoing the shocking transformation from a civilized upright walking adult to a blue furry garbage can. What has happened to me and why am I suspicious of a "white surface"?

Well, for one I am from Germany. Our chocolate, ice cream or cookies aren't only sweet treats. They evolved into their own form of art. Coming to America has meant getting used to a different kind of sweetness, a constant plasticy by-taste, a bold sweetness that caused me various migraine attacks, gaining 10 pounds in two months, suddenly facing health issue... When I returned to Germany from 2 months in Canada a few years ago my Doctor about fell over because of the drastic changes I went through.

When I moved to the US I was on guard for all that FDA approved junk! I told my self to work on discipline and work out. Well, I needed my Chiropractor to tell me that I will not see breakthrough in my pursuit to health or losing those "last 5 lbs" if I keep up my sugar intake. Did you know that sugar (and soy) isn't only in sweet treats, but even in canned soup, prepared meals, deli, salad dressing, dairy products, grain products, fruits or vegetable drinks, and the list goes on. By the way, high fructose corn syrup counts as one of the worst representatives of refined sugar. No matter what TV says.

Let me give you on a site note another idea of my so frequently mentioned father: When my parents came to visit for the first time my father treated me as someone to worry about, because I moved to the US only to become someone worried about what I'm eating. He was worried about me. After three weeks on their own little camper trip through the US he was flabbergasted when he told me that he now understands my concerns and he can't believe how hard it is to find a prepared product without "enriched" or "sugar" as an ingredient.

Why am I suspicious of a "white surface"?

- Did you know that not processed sugar is brown? I don't mean brown sugar, I am talking about sugar directly pressed and dried from sugar cane (Sucanat!).
- Did you know that whole grain bread is brown? I don't mean added food coloring, I am talking about the unbleached, little processed version of whole grains (best: Ezekiel Bread).
- Did you know that salt in it's natural form isn't white? The best salts you can find come from mountains or volcanoes and can be pink or dark. Sea Salt is not considered a great choice (remember all the gunk we have pumped into the seas? That's why we have to keep (originally great and healthy) sea food intake down to about once a week :(

Just like Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of the teachers of the law and the pharisees (a group of "holier than thou") as white washed but deadly inside, in the same way I want you to wake up and realise that we are being tricked in the same way. Surely there is a literal meaning to what Jesus mentions here, but let's look at the metaphor he uses and how it translate 100% into our reality.

In a nutshell, food, as it is presented to us in masses is washed white. It appears to be a good thing, it is convenient, cheap and somewhat tasty. But inside on the molecule level it is dead. And not only is it dead-empty, it causes diseases and bad situations in regular people.

1. Because it functions as a poison within the body, opening the door to uncountable/ and somewhat unforeseeable problems. 
2. Consumption of "white washed" food leaves the body malnourished, deficient of nutrients. Just like eating cardboard. One has to deal with not receiving what one physically needs. Long and short term that leads to serious sicknesses.

Check out this link to read 146 reasons to stay away from refined sugar (the regular sugar we consume daily): http://rheumatic.org/sugar.htm. Let me point out that sugar consumption is related to alcoholism, premature aging, diabetes, immune system weakness, asthma, MS, allergies, obesity, tooth decay and so forth. Does that remind you of what Jesus said about white washed graves?

Here my advice to you:

Stay away from anything you know has been enriched/ bleached/ modified/ altered/ processed to look the way it does now. Will that make life harder? Yes, for a little while, especially if you like to eat out. It takes getting used to to consume 100% whole wheat pasta or bread. But the consequences for not making those changes are way worse. Buy the pink Himalayan Salt from Trader Joes. Eat Ezekiel bread. Buy organic, cage free eggs. Buy unsweetend (and not artificially sweetened) products and get used to the natural taste and flavors of different foods.

The hardest part for many people though is to look into the face of their addiction: Sugar.

You are addicted to sugar:
- if you crave it
- if you can't live without it
- if you are not willing to give it up when you know it harms you

I faced the blue furry garbage can monster inside of me, fought it and tamed it. I have to admit though that my motivation was purely my health. My Chiropractor tought me, besides what I mentioned above, that people with a thyroid situation should totally stay away from soy products. (Un)fortunately all chocolate has soy-lecithin as an ingredient (including german chocolate), so that was it with me and my addiction! I went cold turkey and have ever since then never felt better in my whole life.

Not only have I lost those "last 5 lbs.", I have noticed positive changes in my energy level, immune defense, and over all well feeling.

It is worth going for the real thing. Especially considering that to not do it means to choose "white washed" dead food.

Is there a real alternative to refined sugar? Yes, there is! Coborns carries in their organic section Sucanat (sugar cane natural) which you can use to sweeten oatmeal or whatever, bake with (yay, christmas cookies!!), sweeten popcorn and what not. I like to buy unsweetened Almomd milk and stir a teaspoon of Sucanat into it.

There is actual nutritional value to Sucanat! And it is not related to dental cavities, ADD or diabetes. You might have to get used to the molasses taste, but the benefits outwheigh the changes by far. And you will notice that you stop craving sweets like you used to. Two thumbs up for Sucanat!! (I in no way benefit from anyone going to Coborns and buying Sucanat by the way...)

(I am even now working on making my own chocolate! With coconut oil, unsweetened cocoa-powder and Sucanat, yum!)

Dear family in the Lord Jesus, make your own mature choices if you want to be one of the ones that fall into those white washed tombs and suffer or if you want to be aware of those lies and choose life!

Happy Advent to everybody,

be blessed abundantly!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Spiritual Spa #10 Offensive Cuisine!

John 6:
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
 41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
51 Jesus: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
 52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?"


Dear family in the Lord!

Today's post is not going to talk about frog legs or escargot, but we are talking about the offensive request to eat Jesus and what we can learn from that about our spiritual and physical nourishment!

John 6 is loaded with deep, deep revelation about Jesus! I encourage everyone to read it in full, I only quoted the verses that I want to focus on today. Do you wonder why I underlined the part where Jesus asks his listeners if they are offended by the fact that he tells them to eat him? Do you ever see Jesus as someone edgy, someone who doesn't fit in, someone who walks around stepping on peoples' toes, offending them with truth?

It was my husband who introduced me to the idea (strongly shaped by 19th century Christian philosopher Kierkegaard) that unless we have been offended by Jesus we haven't truly surrendered to him. Today it's easy to believe in the sweet savior baby Jesus, or the almighty King that protects us; after all we didn't go to school with Jesus. We are so used to evangelical messages like "Come to Jesus, he will take care of all your problems", who wouldn't want to follow that invite?! But we didn't know Jesus as our physical brother, cousin or neighbor. Jesus is a powerful mystery to us and maybe there is a part in all of us in that we believe in him, because we get something from him. A blessing. Hope. Distraction. Money. Feeling welcomed. Yes, that is a point of view of someone who did not live when Jesus lived, and maybe you know what I am talking about. How quickly we can forget that we were saved with the purpose to glorify God, not the other way around.

Not so the folks that hung around Jesus! They did share their lives with him, home, city, market place, school, what not! They saw and would be the first to testify: Jesus was definitely human. Granted, they never saw him do anything they could judge him for, but the promised messiah? Naaaaah. The verses I quoted from John 6 portray in a beautiful clear fashion that they did like to be blessed by him (they had just been miraculously been literally fed), but to believe that he is the God send solution to mankind's sin problem?? Even worse, Jesus tells them they have to eat him!! They just ate the bread he gave them, now he says that they have to feed on HIM if they want to live?? And this is the point were it is not only getting interesting for us on our journey to a better understanding what we were created to eat for our physical bodies, but this is the point were his audience was DISGUSTED. In other words, they were offended.

What offends you? I am not talking about someone wearing jeans to a wedding (that's what my father would do to express to my extended family that he doesn't want to pretend to be someone who needs to wear a suit to be festive), I am talking about a serious affront to you. Maybe it is someone confronting you with a truth you wish wouldn't be so true. Maybe it is the realization that you aren't the best at what you always thought you had to be?

What ever it takes for you, when you are offended, you have two choices:
1. Be angry at the messenger and leave in denial.
2. Allow yourself to expose the reason of the offense and face the truth. 

Why, oh why were the people so upset with Jesus telling them they will have to become cannibals? Jewish tradition demands a quite restricted lifestyle. A lot of the restrictions have to do with don't touch this or that and don't eat this or that. From a post-Christ point of view one can say that God wanted to display with his people that he is holy (dedicated to a different cause, consecrated), and they have to be also if they want to be his children. Part of the intention was to protect the hearts of each individual member of his people from idolatry, anything that would lead them astray from knowing that HE is worthy of all their dedication, and that they shouldn't forget that no one loves them more than God the Father does and it hurts God if his children turn away from him.

They understood that we are what we eat. In their tradition pigs were declared "dirty". So to eat pork meant to become dirty. Eating what was declared "clean" meant being clean. Eating a man's flesh was beyond anything acceptable. It was repulsive. Eating Jesus meant becoming him. In their eyes he was just a man, they knew him, appearing to have a savior complex. It was against the law.

Have you ever allowed yourself to feel the offense they felt? How are you going to respond?

If you continue to read John 6 you learn that at that point Jesus lost a lot of his followers. But a dozen of guys who all had different reasons to stay, one of them making one of the strongest statements of faith ever so far: "No Jesus, I am not leaving. Yes, I don't understand what you are asking of me and it is against anything I have learned, but YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF LIFE AND WHERE ELSE SHOULD I GO HAVING TASTED THE LIFE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT?" (I added some words to Peter's statement of true surrender, in accordance what I feel he went through.)

As always I am asking you, my highly honored reader, when I say this is a blog about nutrition, why am I laying such an emphasis on the "inspirational thoughts from the Bible"? This time I translate this thought or maybe even conviction about the offense Jesus was posing, to me challenging you that it is truly in your hand to eat in a way that you won't be hungry again before your body truly needs nourishment. I feel that this is quite a weak point, considering what we just talked about. Everything else seems so small and not important when I feel Jesus talking. I love how we can learn in our walk with God to surrender more every day, trust him more for who he is, realizing more and more that life is not about us, it is about him. He deserves our full dedication, he deserves us. We are not under a law anymore, we live in freedom to listen to his guidance.

Let me introduce you to a foundational hormone we need to understand and learn to control. It is called "Ghrelin".
It is released in your body when you are awaiting to consume food or crave something you know you shouldn't have. There are ways to reduce this hormone, which is good, because then you don't eat out of bottomless desire to fill your stomach, and there are ways to raise it.

What are ways to raise the hunger hormone?

- entering a movie theater when you haven't had a satisfying meal before. The smell of popcorn and candy is a safe raiser of the chance that you are going to have something that will work in opposition with your goals. Same with entering a grocery store, seeing all these temptations on a not well norished body will lead to bad choices.
- Fatty foods! It takes discipline to stop eating french fries before there all gone, same with chips and pretty much any other snack food the FDA approves. Processed fat is not capable of telling your brain that you had enough to eat. Do you understand now why you should stay away from deep fried foods?
- Alcohol! When my husband watches sports my stumbling block gets stumbling to infinity and beyond, part of the sport watching culture is drinking beer AND... eating terrible snacks. Lord have mercy! (Don't think I'm against having a beer, I'm trying to point out that these described factors are counter productive to achieving health goals if exercised on a frequent basis.)
- Refined sugar! Having a can of soda (no matter if diet or not) will result in increasing your appetite, you eat more than you need. If possible stay away from refined sugar in all it's versatile and vicious variations, that means all regular sugar + artificial sweeteners.
- Not enough carbs, protein, fat/ calories! Ever find yourself craving bottomless? If you still think you should cut out meals and lose weight like that you have to deal with an increased ghrelin level, making weightloss traumatic and not lasting.
- Eating at night. Simple rule: Don't eat about 3-4 hours before you go to bed or when you are in bed, especially no carbs. Eating at night will raise your level of hunger and that interferes with a good night sleep. Have a norishing protein dinner and sleep tight.


What are reducers of the hunger hormone?

- Start your day with a nourishing breakfast: A whole wheat sandwich with real butter, cheese, an egg. Or a bowl of refined sugar free oatmeal, fruit and yogurt.
- Plan to eat every 2-5 hours. 5 portions per day are recommended to keep the ghrelin level down and to avoid the body from entering "starvation mode", which will be the nail on your goals-coffin.
- Whole wheat products. Organic whole wheat bread, or sprouted wheat bread, will be a nourishing blessing to your body. You shall have it daily!
- Protein! Go for the real thing: Chicken, salmon, tuna, beans etc. Protein doesn't reduce ghrelin as fast as carbs do, but it works longer.
- Good sources of fat! Olive oil, eggs, real butter, coconut oil. Everything in needed moderation my friend!

If you are on my email list you received with the link for this post a 1 week food journal I created with the purpose to learn to eat on a schedule and what to eat at those 5 important island times during your day! Utilize it as you wish!

My dear family in the Lord Jesus, we are what we eat. If you are overweight you might find the reason in what you eat. This may be offensive to you. It was never the intention of Jesus to offend anyone. But truth is offensive. It is up to you to take the information I am sharing with you and toss it or test it.

Be blessed abundantly!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Spiritual Spa #9 WWJE? - What Would Jesus Eat?


“Man shall not live from bread alone, but from every word that comes out from the mouth of God.” (Deut. 8,3/ Mt. 4,4)


Dear family in the Lord!

This blog is about listening to God’s wisdom and applying it in the more or less neglected yet vital area of our life: Food. Today’s post will be about revealing some thought patterns that determine how and what we eat. Displaying a very personal matter I will try to illustrate a problem I see many suffer from. This one might not make you laugh (that’s what my husband said), but I hope it gets you to think DEEP and PRAY.

For some reason this week I started thinking about what I would call the worst thing that ever happened to me in my whole life. In my mind I went through painful memories such as rejections, heartbreaks, failures, lack of purpose, fears, disappointments or victimizing. Hard to tell what dramatic story can top the other! At one point it hit me in the most freeing way:
The worst thing that ever happened to me in my whole life is that I allowed a few people to lie to me about who God is. Flowing from that place I made the most terrible choices.

Now, I’m not claiming that I am done exploring the complex nature of our Threefold God, since I know I believed a lie. I am stating that in a weak episode of my life (where I felt the consequence of all those not healed places combined) I dared to trust some people who seemed to have it all together (this was back in Germany). It all started very promising and listening to their advice and praying with them about my various wounding brought me closer to the place I knew I wanted to be: God’s heart. Well, I wouldn’t be who I am today if I had noticed and acted sooner upon the fact that my radical Christian group turned out to be a full grown version of a microcosmic cult and the invested trust was being used and abused until I believed the worst thing I have ever believed in my whole life: That God is upset with me and it is up to me to fix that.

How freeing it is to expose lies! It is a lie that God looks down unto human kind, moody like a spoiled adolescent, waiting for people to finally get their acts together and make him happy again. Being away from that group for some time I realized that this personality description fits better to the personality of the group’s leader…

Why, from all the lies that you could believe in, would it be the worst to believe in an angry God? Because it drives you away from God. One way or the other. It separates you from the source of life and that is the book definition of Sin. I was so driven by guilt and even fear that God would change his mind constantly about how He sees me and what He wants me to do that it almost drove me nuts. Mostly I would hear God say (through the mouth of one of the leaders of course) that what ever I attempted in terms of saving the world, submitting to leadership, “cutting the flesh,” praying for the lost, giving money, restricting my daily life choices to only the “holiest of the holiest” ones, leaving my non-believer friends behind, leaving my family behind who wouldn’t fall in line with the leaders commands and expectations, it still would not be good enough. Although sometimes it would be.

Even though I would get a "pat on the shoulder" once-in-a-while, it is bad, very very bad, to wait for someone’s absolution (having someone tell you that for what ever reason God is okay with you - for now)! Let me finish this excursion by sharing my faith with you: I came to believe that there is nothing that I can do to repair my relationship with God. He sent Jesus Christ to this world to be a living and dying and resurrecting testimony to the fact that God is not giving up on us and that HE is the solution to mankind’s problem: Sin (being separated from God). I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, I live to glorify this gift of God, himself.

And he didn’t just leave his followers as orphans, he sent his spirit, his character, to teach, guide and comfort us. Now I can know and rest that I am free from the task of making God happy, for he sees me through the eyes of his son Jesus. To say that I still need to work my way up to heaven and up to approval is a lie from the pit of hell. Hallelujah, who is set free by the Son is free indeed! Now I can be the disciple that gets so close to Jesus that I can hear his heart beat and I can know that it is a VERY GOOD thing that God is watching over us, with his eyes trembling with love and hope for us. For him it is all about us- now we need to learn to have our lives be all about him…

Why am I writing about this stuff today and how can I transfer it to be about nutrition? Because listening to a lot of people I realized that many have a problem that I want to compare to the lie that I have been terribly wounded and mightily freed from: They think that something is wrong with them, in a big time fashion, and they think they can fix themselves by enhancing their outward appearance. People feel guilty if they don’t come to the gym to work out, they make excuses why they didn’t show, or they are addicted to burning calories, they call it a “sin” to eat desert or French fries or they eat as if tomorrow was the end of the world, they knowingly choose to eat terrible foods and say they didn’t have anything else to eat, or they only live of a handful of nothing to eat or nourish them, they say they hate themselves for looking the way they do, they try to get absolution for their choices by referring to or blaming other people, their past wounding, or their lack of time, they mix up “treating themselves” with hurting themselves, legalism with discipline, they want me to admit that I “sin” too sometimes…, they truly believe that their lives will be somewhat okay if they only see that they did have the power to change or control themselves drastically enough, maybe so that they feel like they can control one thing in their life, or get others to love, respect, value, accept them more.

It is bad, very very bad, to wait for someone’s absolution. In the cases described people make themselves or other people to God, whom they have to please, pretty much like how I fell for the worst lie. Their lack of motivation (honestly, how long will guilt be able to carry you?) they call their “little sin,” which will either lead to more guilt or to indifference. Or their zeal to control their weight and size leads to other health and soul issues. Either way, I came to believe, that moving (or not moving for that matter) out of such a motivation will only keep someone busy in their attempts to clean up their lives. It will not fix their lives. Or give them a lasting satisfaction about who they are. Or solve their problems. Or have them love themselves and other people.

The truth will set us free. The truth I am talking about is Jesus Christ. Have you tried everything to make yourself and/or others love you? How did that work out for you? Maybe it is time to realize that you hit rock bottom. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and savior and yet you can’t receive God’s love for you and believe his thoughts about you more than any other voice, go into your prayer closet and talk to HIM about it! Listen while you pour out your authentic heart! Pray with believers you trust. Just don’t ever fall for the lie that God needs you to make him happy. 

God is totally content with who he is and what he has. And if Jesus is your savior God sees you through the sacrifice of Jesus. You are his wonderful creation. 

In the same manner don’t make your attempts to bring your life in order into an idol. Yes, God wants you healthy and not under the law or lack of education and discipline. But he has set you free so that you may be free indeed! If it is on your heart to glorify God with your daily eating and exercising choices- go for it. Contend for divine discipline (brought to maturity this would be called a lifestyle) – who wants to be a 21st century Pharisee who loves the law more than the God it is all about and needs to hide his shortcomings with masks and lies?  In other words, long for maturity so your motivation comes from an inner wanting, a desire to do what pleases the spirit in opposition to attempting to fulfill the law to make it up to heaven.

Now, what would Jesus eat? Well, we talked about the times back then in Spa #2, the food back then was probably pretty “wholesome” compared to America today. So to ask if Jesus ever had to pass down pop or popsicles, I don’t think that matters. Jesus as the second Adam lived in true relationship with God the Father. Food is for the nourishment of the body and I believe Jesus knew how to enjoy food and life to the fullest. Let me just sideline that Jesus made remarkable great wine for already intoxicated people, who couldn’t tell the taste anymore anyway.

But another remarkable Jesus fact: He knew “Man shall not live from bread alone, but from every word that comes out from the mouth of God.” (Deut. 8,3/ Mt. 4,4)

WOW what a wisdom! This is profound. What lies about God and yourself do you believe? 

This is where I hand the mic over to you and I urge you to take the time and ask yourself, why you eat the way you do, why you pursue to change your body and habits, etc. Let me invite you to seek and enter the heart of God to know every word HE speaks about you! Let THOSE words be the one guiding you to the grocery store, to the fridge, to the restaurant, to the bathroom, to the gym, all the way through your daily life. You are absolutely worth it, because Jesus earned you to live a life to the fullest.

If you need further support or wonder if I can refer you to prayer partners, write me an email!

I release you today with the hope that you wouldn't be scared to face the lies in your life, one at a time. You are not alone, you have a whole body with Jesus as head to come along side you in your journey to glorify God with every aspect of your life.

Be blessed abundantly!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Spiritual Spa #8 FDA vs. GOD approved

Everyone did what they saw fit in their own eyes. 
~ Book of Judges


Dear family in the Lord!

Today I quote a whole book of the Bible! The quoted sentence you will find multiple times. It expresses a state in the history of the people of Israel when they didn't have a King yet. Sometimes they would have Judges though. They were instituted by the Lord, because the people had caused themselves so much trouble and chaos by leading their lives in the ways they saw fit- that they would finally cry out to the Lord for help! And then it is recorded that history repeated it self over and over- people would be okay for a while, but as soon as the Judge is gone, they would go back to a lifestyle that glorified the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life. What a graphic way to understand why this world is in the mess that it is in. Human kind corporately lost the fear of God in every way and that shows. But this is not a blog about socio-economics, but socio-nutrition. Which is, as we know, just as messed up as the rest of areas of society.

I did a little research on the FDA, the US food and drug administration. In a healthy nutshell, they allow or restrict all sorts of products on the market to regulate and ensure quality. So the fact that you can read the nutritional value and ingredients in tiny letters somewhere on products is thanks to them guys. I read in their mission statement that their goal is to help with public's health. Well (imagine me clearing my throat), I read as well that they call a lot of things unlawful, amongst many: Misleading information. Let me show you in the following why I don't think they are the God sent Judges to listen to.

How can the front of a product say "All natural whole wheat tortilla wraps" and then in fine prints on the back you learn about enriched and bleached ingredients and only 51% whole wheat! If you have three little kids screaming their lungs out in your cart or rely on your magnifying glasses to read the paper, you will not be able to take the time and study each and every item you intend to purchase. I call that misleading.

How can big companies be allowed to call their artificial sweetener products "DIET" when artificial sweetener mess with your hormone household and can make or keep you fat and likely sick?

How can dairy and deli products en mass be on the market AT ALL that are produced from cows which convenient grass-diets have been exchanged with the inside of a chem lab, when we learned hundreds of years ago that a nursing mothers' milk is influenced by her diet, therefore she for example can't have alcohol or certain medications, likely no hormones!!

Let me add about the FDA that I got the impression that they really don't care what exactly is in a product ingredient wise, but they lay an emphasis on caloric value. Let me say it this way: If a huge company, let's say like Coca Cola, funds a FDA study on diet-soda you can pretty much guess what the outcome is going to be and if it is going to end up on the market. Think of this in many different scenarios and resist the creeping feeling of paranoia- like me!!

About hormones in dairy and deli. Yes, who ever paid for the study on acceptable hormones in animal diet (God will hold all of them accountable), made it happen that the FDA can call it "safe" and "no significant difference has been found between synthetic hormones and regular hormones". This is all CRAP. I will say it again: CRAP-CRAP-CRAP! There.

Why is it CRAP? Well, do you currently take hormones or ou are coming off? Did your Doctor inform you about the links to all sorts of cancer? Meno-pause, birth control, hormonal disorders are commonly treated with magical hormones, but did you know that there are natural ways to deal with these topics (that a medical Doctor would not like you to hear about...)? I mean, we made it up to 21st century somehow, and most of it without synthetic or real hormones added to our diet...

Besides that, the amount of hormone traces in 1 glass of milk might be fine, what if you have 2 glasses, 1 steak, 2 cheese strings, 1 yogurt, 4 slices of turkey deli and some butter a day? That all adds up and your body will be the garage for all of that (on top of the medication you might take and the chemicals in household products). So, anymore questions why we need education on making the right choices? 
   
Now let me talk about for a little why it is not enough to only care about the caloric intake per day: The common chips bag suggests that the consumer's caloric need is about 2000 calories per day. Granted, they do mention that it might be less or more than that. Let me make one thing clear: It is very likely less. Do you have a car? Does it matter what kind of fuel you put into your car? Does it matter what, if you like to keep track of your daily calories, you eat? Well, we wouldn't meet here to talk about nutrition if that wasn't the case. So, yes it matters your world what you put into your body. So, just knowing how much sugar is in a product won't matter if you only care to look at the calorie amount.

What am I suggesting after bringing up all these horrible facts about the products on the market? I am saying, realize that you are in charge. You choose what you purchase. The FDA is not interested in making bad choices obvious and they will allow companies to move in gray areas, to your disadvantage. I am suggesting to stop and think when you are in the grocery store and read all labels carefully. I mostly only shop at Trader Joe's. They still have some real bad stuff sitting between the treasures, but it is worth the ride over there, for they offer wonderful Ezekiel bread, whole wheat tortilla and pasta, meat and deli without any additives, natural yogurt, organic fruits and vegetables, sulfur free dried fruits, less harsh body care or household products, wine without any sulfites, organic frozen berries and pizza with whole wheat crust....and all of that cheaper than most other grocery stores. For me it is a treat to go to Trader Joe's and shop. I'm taking time, reading labels, talking to the staff (for some reason m husband never wants to go with me?!).

Here a rough list of words to look out for (I am always very attracted to buy the products with the least ingredients):
Stay far away from:
-enriched (unless it is shampoo)
-bleached
-MSG
-white flour (directly from hell)
-something other than "whole wheat" or "sprouted wheat"
-refined sugar (pretty much everything in America), if you have to have sugar go for 10g or less per serving products. This is VERY important for you and your kids or grand kids.
-deep fried or pre-fried foods (fries, patties, you name it). Make them your self!!!
-processed foods. Stay away from them. Cook your own meals. Buy good ingredients. 
-Get Jillian Michaels' book "Master your Metabolism" to get a grand overall idea on why we are fooled and how we can eat on our behalf again.
-artificial sweeteners (Splenda, Aspartame etc.)

Let me wrap this up: In the market place everyone does as they see fit. FDA tries to bring some regulations into the chaos, they mean very well, but they compromise and support the American people getting sicker and sicker with every time you deep fry-microwave-grill-or cook with most products purchased. FDA vs. GOD approved means a mindset of: Honoring the creation (animals and fruits and veggies= go as organic as you can afford) and taking care of the body's needs. And GOD approved food won't work against you either. That just doesn't make any sense! God created food for our body to his service and not to need the service of a Doctor immediately or down the road.

Do humans have a need for refined sugar? No, there is no nutritional value in refined sugar. In the doses consumed today it is actually very harmful.
Do humans need Vitamin C? Yes DAILY, they do, they need it in form of REAL FRUIT though, over the counter supplements are not able to perform the job. And I'm not talking about fruit in jam or cake either, go for one organic apple, orange and banana a day minimum, daily!

In the time of the Judges we would cry out to God since we realized we messed up big time and he would sent a Judge like Deborah, Gideon or Samson and they would clean up big time! Remember Jesus cleaning up the temple? That's what we need! How about we start praying corporately about this and expect God to help us?! As believers in Jesus Christ we have the Holy Spirit and can be led by him if we ask our father in heaven to fill us with him, and through being obedient to the leading of this divine councilor we can come to the right judgments.  Now who can afford to listen to the wrong council anymore??

Be blessed abundantly,   
Christina

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Spiritual Spa #7: Eater's Digest!

“Are you so dull?” Jesus asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) Mark 7, 18-19

Dear family in the Lord!

Today I will let you in on a very personal issue of the last week! Guess what I'm going to talk about? Exactly, food (eventhough it's not gonna be very appetizing...)!

Let me list, starting with last Saturday, what I ate out of the ordinary (and there were always reasons (including craving, convenience, courtesy) why I made the choices that I did):

Saturday night, eating out in a restaurant: Fried Shrimp with sweet potato fries + mayo.

Sunday staying at my in-laws: Deep fried french fries and chicken fat nuggets + mayo.

Monday, my friend shared her order with me: 4 slices of cheese Pizza with extra garlic sauce + extra garlic sauce (the artificial one!).

Tuesday: Left overs of cheese Pizza with extra garlic sauce. 


So, by Wednesday I ended up feeling bloated and unhappy.

By Friday I thought I have an appendix bursting within me and need to go to a clinic. 

Fortunately I saw my Chiropractor Friday night, because I was suffering a pain in my back moving to the stomach and back that I had NEVER known before. My Chiropractor is a wise man, knowing the relationship of nutrition and the overall physical well being. He tested my organs and told me that I have rotting food in my intestines. Well great, I thought, here I go telling my gentle readers to do all about as I say but not as I DO!! The Chiropractor gave my organic supplements eating the indigestible leftovers for the peace of my body.

I choose to share this with you. Us authors about nutritional advice are still human. Struggling  just like you to make the good choices. And subject to bad consequences just like you. That last week I ate like a "real American". And it made me sadly aware of the kids of America that have to get used to this kind of food THE HARD WAY because their parents or guardians might just not know better (or don't care enough).

Let's go back to Mark 7 and Jesus describing accurately what food is supposed to do. It is supposed to go into the stomach and then leave the body. In the spiritual sense Jesus expresses a truth that I admire and that changed my life. He responds to the law-loving pharisees and teachers of the law that a law cannot change the heart. And God is all about the heart of a person. You can go through all the motions you think make you a "christian", but without a surrendered heart it is all in vain. Jesus compares the effect the fallen world should have on us to the intake of food: We receive, we deal with it, we don't allow it to become a part of us, we get rid of it. Jesus was truly the master of not being defiled by anything that came at him, even though he was human like us.

What did he do differently than all the rest of man-kind? Well, let me give you an example, someone treats you badly, how do you naturally react? You're upset and might curse the person back or judge them harshly in your mind. If someone sins against us, it never justifies a sinful reaction. It makes it "understandable", but it doesn't make it right in God's eyes. That is why nothing from the outside can defile us. It will only defile us, if we allow it to enter our heart, stay in our system. Jesus said to turn the other cheek. Outwardly and inwardly. Forgive right away and love in return. Ask God to fill you with that love, you need to, because this kind of a lifestyle is truly supernatural. Don't let what Satan throws at you stick. Expose his schemes and clean yourself asap with the blood of Jesus. We are truly made righteous and daily more and more holy for the purpose of a life that would be a testimony to everyone around us.

Now let's talk food again, what if the food we eat lost it's natural composition and it won't leave you anymore? Three main meals per day are meant to mean: three times per day food leaving the body. HOW MESSED UP IS TODAY'S FOOD!! You eat it and it does not want to leave you naturally. That's what I was delighted to experience on your behalf (or alongside you) so that we can all learn :)

Did you actually know that a healthy, well eating human goes to the bathroom 1/2 hour -3 hours after eating a meal? If that isn't you, do you have a clue why not?

As always it comes back to nutrition. Let me introduce you to a really, really great friend on our journey to more understanding and health. FIBER! Fiber is an indigestible carbohydrate. But in this case it is a very good thing. Fiber will fill you up in a healthy way, keep you saturated longer, exhilarate the digestive process, is connected to weight loss and counted to help prevent you from all sorts of sicknesses. Do you know when God created fiber? Well, it was on the day he created the plants of the ground, the trees with the fruits and the grains on the fields. God loves us! Praise the Lord!

There is no significant amount of fiber in any of the foods I consumed out of the ordinary that significant last week. And it didn't help that I still had vegetables or fruits during that week. I was occupied. It was like being terribly sinned against and instead of forgiving and leaving it behind, I held on to it as if I was able to change anything about it. Now, can you envision better, who is behind all the processed foods (enriched or white flours, sugary drinks or juices, prepared meals etc.) that lack life preserving nutrients like fiber? I think of "him" as a "Joker" (from Batman the Dark Knight) type of a guy. He presents you the world as he sees it, deceives you into his perspective of despair and has you choose his way of dealing with it. In a microcosm example I could see the CEO of a food company go through some kind of a thought process like:
"We want to make food. We want people to buy it. We want to make a lot of money. Money will feed our families and keep us going. We need to find ways to make the process of creating dishes cheaper. Everyone would do this. FDA approved those cheap ingredients. Granted, we funded some FDA programs. So people might get sick. We have to get lawyers to protect us from getting sued. Oh well. I HATE HUMANS!!!"

Dig the love of God! Eat the fiber foods! Choose 100% whole wheat (NOT ENRICHED, please read labels!!!!), brown rice, beans! Add pears and prunes to your daily diet. Consume all sorts of vegetables with every meal. You can google high fiber foods and will be astound how easy it would be to have the recommended 20-35grams of fiber and give your digestion and health a boost!
Now go forth and think of the Garden Eden! Claim back the lost grounds in the name of Jesus!

Be blessed abundantly!



Monday, August 15, 2011

Spiritual Spa #6 OMG: MSG!

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

Revelations 22, 18

Okay, I have had my fair share of people telling me what to do using bible verses not only out of context, but stretching the meaning of the words to an unhealthy level. Forgive me when you think this is one of these times! Believe me, my motives are noble and I mean to equip you on your journey to more health!

Let's look at the warning that Jesus Christ gives to John. He bestowed revelations about the times  (prophecy) unto John and urges every hearer of John's testimony to not add anything. Well, isn't this neat ? Do you ever feel you need to add something to what you want to share, in order to make it more interesting, funnier, wittier, more sad etc.? Jesus tells us to listen carefully. What he says is enough. Stay true to the facts you received.

How do you feel when you learn that what you heared/read/saw was more than everything there was to it? I'd say it becomes a lie by definition.

How does it make you feel to be made aware that our every day food is LOADED with additions that don't belong there. LIES. We already talked about evil-minded enriched foods, perverted preservatives, high alarming high fructose corn syrup or atrocious artificial sweeteners and colors. We haven't reached the bottom yet of what there is to know about our daily bread that we are so thankful for.

Come on a little journey with me for a moment: Think of Southern France. Imagine the salty sea smell in the clean air. Can you see the vineyards on the one side of the quiet sunny and sandy street and the strawberry fields on the other? There is a tomato field right down the street. Can you sense the sweetness in the air? Now follow your taste buds and go into the strawberry field, pick one sun-riped dark red fruit, undust it with your hands and bite into it. How does it taste like? Can you imagine the tangy sweetness of pure fruit sugar and Vitamin C rising through your body, reviving every cell there is to you? Do you feel like praising the Lord for his goodness?

Now come back to America, the land of the possible impossibilities, see yourself sitting in your little office or classroom opening that bag of fast food at lunch time, inhaling a mixture of fat, fake nutrients and fake tastes and therefore fake smells. Bite into that enriched white flour bun burger and deep fried french fries, feel the excitement in your brain, the satisfaction on your tongue to bathe it in the tastes it craved ever since you got first introduced to processed food, eat it up, only to regret that you didn't buy a second burger and more french fries with it, and kick yourself for the thought "it was a good idea to go without the medium chocolate shake"!! The feeling of excitement by now has developed into heartburn and every cell there is to you is still waiting for the sensation of true nourishment/ being truly filled- waiting for Godot or Guffman- waiting in vain. So after a little while you're hungry again, and guess what you are going to crave on your way home? You're lucky, there is another drive thru on your way home! Do you feel like praising the Lord for that?

Now let's come back to you reading this Spa. If you read the other Postings you know by now what to look out for. Let me add one more LIE to your list (by now you want to read again what Jesus says WILL HAPPEN to the ones that add something to the truth he has given): GLUTAMATES. Those are flavor enhancers and in a nutshell the guests directly from your worst nightmare you would have never let into your house if only you had known their true nature before.

Glutamates are a form of excitotoxin and guess what they do? They get you really excited. Quick test, judging by your flesh, do you crave french fries or steamed broccoli? Well, let me give you a hint... Drop that, I think we got the point.

MSG stands for Monosodium glutamate. It can be in anything and everything. It can be in seasoning, any kind of can, any kind of dish you buy, snacks, desserts, dressing. It's everywhere. It will make you go for seconds, and thirds, and fourths. (Envision you and that chips bag/ ice cream box the other night).

Now besides making us eat and crave more than we need (= making us overweight), in what other ways do these lusting liars, added on top of God's provision, bring our bodies under the curse again ( our bodies = the temples of the holy spirit)?

Let me quote from Jillian Michaels book "Master your metabolism" (very, very highly recommended to get and read thoroughly):

"Excitotoxins dive into the brain with relative ease, excite brain cells, and can rapidly cause permanent brain damage and eventual cell death."

Almost like a drug this white powder changes your brain every time you consume it in it's various forms. Unfortunate is that obesity is only the immediate cause, the ways in that it will affect your whole metabolism in the long run are harder to foresee. Remember that I started this Blog because so many of us in the body of Christ have all sorts of sicknesses and issues? MSG is a lead to explaining how that can be.

Now, FDA says Glutamates are fine in tiny portions, but as we said earlier, it is in EVERYTHING you might be used to consume on a daily basis (and every book keeper knows: a little here- a little there sums up to A LOT).

Don't risk it. Stay away from MSG and it's various glutamate siblings. Read labels carefully in the grocery store and never ever blindly trust "all natural/ natural flavors" phrases. The easy way of not having any fellowship with these dirty dozens means staying away from processed foods as good as you can. Don't bluntly trust other chefs. Ask what's in it. If you don't watch what passes the threshold of your mouth, who will?? My mother-in-law still loves me sort of (thanks to the fruit of the holy spirit), even though I can be a pain in the ear.

Check your seasoning salts also! If salt isn't there to salt anymore, Jesus said during the sermon on the mount (Mt. 5-7) to TOSS IT OUT!! No kidding.

Need I remind you of the bible verse we started out with today? There are consequences to adding to the truth. So treat the topic with respect, I'd say. Let's be wise as doves and mature as steak eating children of God, exposing the schemes and tearing down the strongholds of the enemy! (Wow, I just managed to put at least 4 bible references together in this one sentence...)

Fall in love with the real thing. Does a salad need marshmallows/ and or tons of dressing? Does a naturally sweet sauce need added sugar? Does a french fry need to be killed of it's last little nourishing aspects in a deep fryer?

Answers: No, a salad does not need marshmallows. Teach your kids by example to eat vegetables, because your body is created to live off of them. Keep the dessert in the dessert corner. Try out a splash of virgin olive oil, a little salt and pepper over a salad bowl and get excited of the feeling of Southern France that comes with this simple way.

No, naturally sweet sauce does not need added sugar. Think of Southern France.

French Fries, onion rings, chicken fat nuggets or anything breaded, or fish, meat, vegetables, you name it, will be just fine in the oven. Deep frying is without a justifiable cause. Try to become a baker! There are so many wonderful and super simple ways to bake vegetables... Especially with some garlic and olive oil.

And now, the ball is in your court! Ignorance is bliss, but pain, obesity and sickness isn't. Again I leave you with reminding you that if you lack ability, passion or even conviction to change your habits, to go to the Lord himself and chat with him about that... Go with what ever he tells you to do.

Be blessed abundantly!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Spiritual Spa #5 Great= great?

"He must become greater; I must become less." John 3, 30

Dear family in the Lord!

Who is "he" and who is "I"? John the Baptist ("I") is talking about Jesus Christ ("he") in this frequently quoted verse.  As soon as we get the slightest idea of the breath taking beauty  and power of our Lord Jesus we enter right in and with the hope of a desperate man agree: LESS OF ME OH LORD AND MORE OF YOU!!!

Praise the Lord! Let's agree with HIS plans for our lives!

Today I want to share some facts on obesity (I must become less...). What is going on there? Chew on this:

Your body needs X calories per day. As soon as your body receives X + calories per day it will start to store those "++". Where? Right under your skin, in your organs, your blood. That shows on your scale, your physical appearance, your energy level and your health.

How many calories does the body need to add one pound of pure squishy body fat? 3500 calories more than you burn a day (or a week- the body has the memory of an elephant!).
That is about one meal at a restaurant with appetizer, main course, desert and beverages.
Now, how many calories does the average person need? Roughly most people with a desk job burn no more calories per day than 1600-1700. Are you shocked now? You should. Run, run fast, run for about 1 hour to burn about 500-600 calories!!!

Now let's look at the X as mentioned above. How do you know how many calories your body needs per day? http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php Put in your information and be surprised how many (or how few) calories your body actually needs to maintain itself, if you can handle truth.

Guess how many calories your body needs to miss out on to lose a pound of pure squishy body fat? 3500 calories! Yeah, it's easy! I have mentioned this before in another Spa, but if you want to lose 1 pound of body fat a week, cut out dessert and any sweet beverages for a week and be amazed! Live 3 months like that and maybe find a friend to work out with and you will see a new you.

Let me give you a recommendation for a food journal + exercise counter: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/. To track calories for a while is very fruitful, since we COMPLETELY lost understanding of what our body really needs, versus what our flesh craves. We are obese because we consume too much. We consume too much for we are eating bad food (and we have a strong habit). Myfitnesspal will give you a good idea of the calorie amount of what you want to eat. If you have an I-phone, consider getting the app or if you have an internet phone, have this page be a quick link, to access it to your convenience.

Ever heard of "empty calories"? We call them empty because they are just like empty promises, they smell great, get your brain in the mood to eat, contain a TON of calories to keep you still hungry and craving the same bad stuff. That's what most of us eat and have eaten for most of our lives. And the food industry has gotten more efficient every decade since about the '60s when it is about creating "Frankenfood" for us.

It is so easy to lie to your self, and others, (Oh, this butter burger has a salad leaf on it! or The name of my mayonnaise bomb-dish is "dip" or "salad"). You will not see the promised land of optimal weight and the benefits that come from a well nourished body if you don't learn to overcome your deceived  flesh with the spirit of Jesus Christ.

(Did you know that you can easily substitute mayonnaise with greek (no or low fat) yoghurt and save tons of calories and add many nutritional benefits?
 http://www.linda-rd.com/blog/what-is-greek-yogurt-brands-nutrition-facts-recipes/)

If this Spa speaks to you, go to the Father in Heaven and tell him something like this:

"Lord Jesus, my body is a temple created to your glory and I have been and am abusing it to glorify my own flesh. I am almost not even sorry. I have received the reward of bad Nutrition willingly. I know that I use food as a source of cheap and empty satisfaction and hardly let you interfere with my attitudes and choices. I just don't want to think about bad consequences. But I know aswell that the reward of sin is (eventually) death. Today, oh good Father in heaven, I ask you to convict me. Let me feel and see the ugliness of the burden of my sin for a moment so that I can realize and confess that I am under the law of the devil who wants me to follow my dull senses into my own, and my family's, destruction. Jesus, claim your right over this your temple and open my spiritual eyes and ears so I can see and hear you leading me into a lifestyle that honors you, right by the fountain of abundant life. Thank you Jesus!"

I wish this Spa would have turned out more witty and funny. But the bottom line is, to lose ourselves and give room to God goes hand in hand with the cutting of our flesh (outch!).

I chatted with Ashley, the owner of the gym I work at, and we agreed that in a way it is unfair that the WIDE SPREAD sin of gluttany in the body of Christ can be so obvious, when other sins can be performed in secret. Let's not waste our lives treading around in a desert for 40 years! Let's choose obedience and wisdom= follow the Holy Ghost! Greatness on earth does not equal greatness in the kingdom of Jesus. Lord become greater in me, I must become less.

Okay, let me end on a funny note: Imagine my german father told me this one and I try to keep it as literal as possible: What is a monkeys' Schnitzel? ....a banana!

Be blessed abundantly!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Spiritual Spa # 4


God’s Manner: Manna!

Read: Exodus 16

Dear family in the Lord!

What, you might wonder, can the post-modern society today learn from basically ancient folks wandering around in a small desert for 4 decades about 3000 years ago looking for a promised land they ended up sharing with the wrong people anyway?? Good point! Can we all agree though that the sin that was in those people's hearts back then is the same sin that still tries to dominate us today? How often do we read for example through the story of Moses with his people and recognize ourselves in the different characters described? How sweet is the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin! We read about something that happened 1000s of years ago, start to think “those jerks!!”, until we feel the “wait a moment…”. Lets look at Exodus 16 and see what we can learn about our own and the Lord’s manners!

The context in a nutshell; The Israelites have just escaped their exile in slavery with Moses and Aaron leading them in the wisdom and power of the Lord himself. They started to wander about in the desert and experience the Lord's supernatural provision. The people begin with the infamous murmuring (“those jerks!!”…”wait a moment…”), thinking, they complain against their "irresponsible" leaders. Turns out those leaders where acting in God’s authority and appointing, so to be upset with their decisions meant to doubt God. By the way, I don’t think this means we cannot pose questions to our leaders! Let’s keep track of the motives in our hearts though when we do question others or get questioned ourselves.

Now, how does being scared of starving, like we find it in Exodus 16, relate to us today, keeping in mind that these people where just released from slavery? A known interpretation of the story of the Exodus (the “taking off”) is to relate it to us being under the reign of sin until Jesus Christ sets us free. The Israelites were set free in the physical realm, but in their minds they were still bound to Egypt. How do I know that? Ever heard of the Stockholm Syndrome? (No worries, I will end up talking about nutrition :) ). In simple words: it's a psychological reaction of a hostage towards their rulers, partnering with and interpreting their abuses and criminal actions as desirable and not questionable. That explains why often after we get freed from sinful habits e.g., we tend to feel like we want to go back to it if something unexpected occurs. In our minds we may have partnered with a sin and being freed from it needs to include an exposure and clean cut with all benefits we might have received. That includes breaking with bad food choices, just because it's tasty and everybody eats it, doesn't make it God's plan for your life!

Let me interpret the Exodus story on a different level: Nutrition. The first Spa was about facing the ugly truth: We are in captivity. We think we are on top of things, we enjoy (some sort of a) provision. Too bad that the side effects of our cheap and irresponsible (not knowing what we’re doing) lifestyle costs us our and our kids' health. Do you want to be free? Ask Jesus to free you from the reign of the spirit of modern provision. Hey, I’m not against recipes from grannys’ cookbook. I am against attitudes (strongholds) that raise themselves up against the knowledge of God. AKA in this Spa: Preservatives. We already talked about enriched foods and artificial sweeteners being vicious, let me add preservatives to the picture.

Let’s go back to Exodus, God lets it rain bread (they called it Manna) to bestow his supernatural provision on his people. With it comes the rule to not store it. God says, this is to test the hearts of the individuals in the whole people (4). Everybody gets a certain amount for every head in his family for every day. No one has too much, no one has to little (verse 18). Now read this:


 19 Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.


Ring a bell? Hello!! God’s provision is enough for one day for each member of our family!! The food he has created for us is good the way it is! It is meant to perish if we don’t need it! (I’m not demonizing freezers or natural ways of preservation! I am talking about the preservatives that make us sick. See below!) One critical side track question, did the Bison die out when America was only populated by the Natives or when the white men took over...  Let's face it, we lost the ability to honor God's creation.   

Today’s preservatives in processed foods are so bad that they not only make food taste artificial (you start to realize that when you eat the real thing!!), but way worse: they literally make us sick. Can you see the pattern by now? There is a godly way of everything leading to “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!” and then there is the opposite. The opposite is MS, diabetes, various forms of cancer, obesity, hormonal disorders, heart issues, depression,  and so forth!
Still want to blame the devil? Well, yeah, but we buy his schemes and products- literally.

What do I mean when I talk about processed foods? Basically everything you can think of in the grocery store that just needs to be tossed together and warmed up. For example: Soup, refried beans, bread, sauces, pasta meals, meats, rice meals, snacks, chips, tacos, nachos, dehydrated foods, you name it. How in the world can it stay good in that climate for years and years? Even if it is “only” weeks, most real and fresh foods have a fridge lifetime of about 3-6 days max. And that is God’s manner! Are you surprised about bad consequences for messing with his system?

As a child I used to think that food stays good for a loooong time in cans for the lack of oxygen. Now that I am an adult I left that fairytale idea behind and learned the truth: The reason are all sorts of different and complicated to spell and pronounce additives. Do you really need certain words to look for? BHA is one word to look for and avoid to get close to. There are many, many other chemicals worthy to be mentioned, making this a long and hard to read spa. Look for the foods with the least ingredients, that's a good thumb rule. If you can't pronounce it, it's likely harmful.

Let me pose this: Are you really too busy to gather the provision of the Lord together and cook your own meal? If you cook your own meals (maybe even have some bonding time preparing it with your kids), you know pretty much what’s in it and I bet you and your family enjoy it the more. 

For example, instead of opening a can of Pasta with meatballs to warm up, buy whole wheat pasta, make your own sauce from fresh organic tomatoes, fresh garlic, onions and fresh herbs, look for (best: organic, Trader Joes) beef without nitrates and without nitrites (good luck with that one!). To buy regular meet, well, just think about what the cows, chicken and turkey are fed today. Not only is it cheap bad food, unlike what they were created to eat, they get fed growth hormones to add quantity, lacking quality. A must (according to Jillian Michaels book "Master your Metabolism") is to at least find meats without nitrites, those are the most harmful preservatives in meat. This is a controvercial topic though! Following Jillians advice though has proven it self to me. Your call!

Needless to say that we don't live in a desert anymore, so usually appropriate cooling of foods keep them good as long as they are supposed to, without chemical preservatives.

Be blessed abundantly!  

Friday, July 1, 2011

Spiritual Spa #3

Jesus Christ says: Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20

Dear family in the Lord!

Reading this I get goose bumps. When we open the door to Jesus he will come inside and eat with us and we with him. He will come in when we hear his voice! Are some of us too busy chewing on chips and crackers so they can't hear his voice? Is this spa about making you feel guilty for craving chips? No, it's not!

Today I want to bring to our attention that Jesus is either going to move  deeper into "us" or is about to for the first time, when we invite him. But how huge is one heart! Has he been given permission to enter into every room of our hearts yet? And if he does have permission, what are we going to serve him to eat? What does this even mean??

Jesus calls himself the bread of life. I think in the spiritual sense of this statement he doesn't rely on us grabing our fancy cook book from the shelf and start preparing a 4 course meal (hoping he wouldn't smell in the fridge for what we usually eat). I think Jesus is for dinner. And for breakfast and lunch. All about us (will, emotions, memories, drives, craves, etc.) is stored in a deep place, maybe even too deep for us to have on our radar. The bibel calls this place "the heart". Out of this heart flows who we are, showing in our thoughts, actions or interactions with one another. In this heart of hearts he wants to enter, he wants us to show him what's brooding on our own stoves, warming up in our microwaves (when we don't expect him as a guest), he will toss it out with a loving smile (with our permission) and serve us himself as the dish that brings forth life, life to the fullest. The best meal ever.  The effect is great joy and new life!

Can we transfer this into the physical realm? YES WE CAN! I have seen and heared people's health improving significantly when they started allowing Jesus to come in to one dark room after the other of their heart. People receiving forgiveness or choosing to release others by forgiving them and then being set free from diffrent physical issues. Let's not harden our hearts when we are confronted with our own sin or by holding on to unforgiveness and bitterness! Let's choose to trust Jesus to be the best chef there is.


Be blessed abundantly!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Spiritual Spa #2

Spiritual Spa #2

Give us this day our daily bread.

Dear family in the Lord!

In the last Spiritual Spa we have been thinking about the goodness of the Lord which can be experienced through eating food, for goodness sake!  When we eat what is good for us, the consequences will be good for us and we can tune in with the Psalmist singing “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!” I have received a lot of feedback from you about the need to hear more about nutrition. I'd love to hear from you on this Spa aswell, share testimonies with me!

In this Spa we want to address the part in the Lords Prayer where our Savior Jesus Christ teaches us to pray to our Father in Heaven to give us every day our daily bread. Lets take a look at the context of this statement back then and today. We know that there is a spiritual meaning to it, Jesus being the bread of life which we need every day for our selves and our neighbor to share with. But back then it spoke to an audience that did not know about the blessing and the curse of the endless food isles of Super Target. But they knew everything about the blessing and the curse of producing and preparing food with their own sweaty hands. They knew what it was to plant a field of grain. They knew what it was to shepherd animals. They knew their daily bread was depending on influences beyond their power, such as weather, wars and government. Jesus, who in my opinion always acted “wholly” (body, soul, spirit), comforts his disciples by saying that the provision they need comes from the Father in Heaven. It is probably valid to mention too that he is telling them to stay away from any pagan idolatry that would include make-it-rain rituals, but to only address the Father in Heaven.

Do we know anything about hunger? Most of the generation that has never experienced a war in it’s own country has no idea of hunger, fear of starving or lack of food supply. My father knows this very well, he has been raised by people that went through two excruciating wars that were surrounded by poverty and therefore hunger of the people. Poor people today in America don’t face hunger. Why is that? Let me side-track by saying that the church, instead of taking responsibility, has allowed the world to feed the hungry. Food can be very cheap today, we, the church, even hand it out during food distributions and call it an event of charity- granted, many of us don’t know better. What food am I talking about? Processed food. Fake food. Some call it Frankenfood. Foods that are cheap to produce and buy, yet cost the consumers their health. Enriched (chemically altered) food, meat produced with growth hormone, sodas and diet soda beverages that not only lack nutrition but actually make people seriously sick on top of that! And that’s why we are meeting to talk about this and listen to the Holy Spirit to get back on track today!

I propose that Jesus must have seen the church 2000 years later, knowing that a big part of it will not know the meaning of hunger, nor the fear of lack of food. What could he possibly be teaching us then, if this is an outdated prayer for bread for our physical bodies? Maybe we could compare it with praying to have our every day ride to our work place- we don’t need to pray for this provision, we know it is there.
I believe Jesus is pointing out that we need the Father to teach us to receive what we need to and not more. Give us THIS DAY our DAILY bread. Discipline. This is a spiritual fruit. Lets continue to ask the spirit to give us more of it in every area of our lives.

Who has ever been sharing a meal with me will testify that I might be very concerned about what I’m shoveling down, but I am here and there lax when it is about how much of it I’m consuming. I like to eat. And I like to eat seconds if the taste is very pleasant, especially if it's german chocolate. The Spirit is not talking to me about constant counting of calories or forcing myself to starve. I feel the Holy Spirit addressing something different and that is: Why am I eating more than I need? What is needy in me that craves the expanded stomach feeling? Why can’t I control the taste buds that our dear Apostle James, exhorting us to seek control over the tongue, might have not even known about? Here a link for a prayer that helps you to pray about Food Addiction. Utilize it as the spirit leads you. http://romelscafe.com/2008/07/09/prayer-for-food-addiction

I want to go forth and feed our brains with some facts on why it is so important (and where the vicious circle in this is located) to eat in moderation and to eat what is healthy for you.
Most of us are somewhat overweight or have an unhealthy body composition (= too much fat and too little muscle, but not necessarily “obvious”). No condemnation here, lets acknowledge if this is true and seek the Lord on how to move towards a healthier life, since the Lord doesn’t seem to answer prayers like “Would you rid me of unnecessary fat in my body overnight, please and thank you?” :)

It appears to be common knowledge that a woman is to consume 2000 and a man around 2500 calories a day. That might have been true when they were milking cows and carrying buckets of water for miles and miles every day. If your life looks like this: Getting up in the morning, walking to the garage, sitting in the car to sit at your job, then walking to the parking lot, then driving somewhere else and sitting there, eventually going to bed and laying there until you get up the next morning- you don’t qualify for a daily 2000 calorie diet. Let’s think of food as FUEL to our bodies. Food is our friend (especially fish ;), not meant to be our enemy. I have no problem with eating good organic ice cream with great gratitude.

Wrap your mind around this though: If your body receives 3500 calories (no matter what time frame) too much, it will add 1 pound of fat to your body. 1 Pound of fat more equals one more pound added to the weight on your scale! You can turn this equations around as well, save desert and sweets for a week and you probably lose a pound. This is very important to keep in mind when you eat. We are overweight and have too much fat and too little muscle, because we eat more than our bodies need, for we don’t live in a way that would make us need that amount of daily fuel. If we don't burn what we put on the stove it will just sit there and go nowhere. That is one reason why doctors always say "Daily exercise is important!" (and if it only starts with 30 minutes of faster pace walking!!).

Now it is one thing to overeat on organic tomatoes and another thing to consume any amount of bad food. I am not a biochemist, but I can tell you in plain words that a lot of the foods that are out there and in your pantry and fridge mess with your body in ways you don’t want to hear about. I will say it anyway! In a nutshell our bodies are incapable of dealing with processed food. Remember, we were created from the mud in the earth. That's where our food needs to come from aswell and not from a chem-lab. It is like putting the wrong kind of fuel into a car, only that the body will fight the bad symptoms as long as it can and then cease to be able to at some point sooner or later.

How do you know what foods are processed foods? Start reading labels thoroughly! I can’t even begin to point out the fact that: we cannot trust the food that is presented to us everyday. Keep this in mind when you go out to eat! Please, ask the Lord to make you aware of poison in your pantry!

Let’s start with a very common factor of vicious food: Synthetic ingredients. When you buy food, stay 100% away from anything “enriched”. This is BAD for you in every way and will harm you and the people you serve it to. Why is that? I heard the theory that America got so busy with working and lifestyle that food companies went down the path of trying to make foods last forever. So they came up with a chemical procedure of ridding the natural ingredients, lets say pasta, of it’s perishable nutrients. What’s left after the process is done is a white paste with no nutritional value. They thought they could trick nature and “enrich” the clumps of empty calories with synthetic nutrients. Too bad, the body cannot decipher synthetic nutrients. The opposite is happening, the reaction of the body’s attempt to digest that kind of stuff leads to major imbalances in your blood sugar and can result in diabetes to name only one consequence. Besides that those foods or beverages have a regular amount of calories, but your body isn’t nourished, so don’t be surprised: you will soon be hungry again. And guess what you are going to crave? The same bad stuff, for we crave what we eat until we receive the grace to listen to our body’s real needs again.  

Find yourself craving and drinking sodas? Remember that out of our stomachs will flow streams of living water! We are made from water, in the spiritual and in the natural and we need to consume daily half our weight in water ounces to have our metabolism function at it’s best. Well, it is easy for me to say to stay away from Sodas and Diet-Sodas all together, since I don’t see anything in them. My parents just never had those in our home, I never got used to sweet daily (or for some of us hourly) drinks. I like to drink water and tea. Why should you stay away from Sodas or Diet-Soda all togehter and even most fruit juices? For one, high-fructose corn syrup. This “sugar” is a cheap and hard for the body to digest chemical result. The alternative “artificial sweeteners” is straight from hell as well, not only lying to you with pretending to come with no calorie consequences, it actually puts necessary hormones in your brain to sleep that you need in order to know that you are full. Deja vu? Again, you will eat much more than you need. Other reasons to stay away from those are:

1. The ingredients mess with the density of your bones, making them crack faster

2. Your teeth get more prone to cavities

3. "Fruit" (read the labels!) juices make you think you just drank something healthy and train your tastebuds to crave something sweet and disliking non-sweetend fruits and vegetables

4. They keep your blood sugar constantly high, leading to diabetes again.

5. Your children see you drinking soda and think that’s what’s going on. Childhood obesity and diabetes have never been a HUGER issues than in these times. Guess where kids learned this from?
There is a ton more to mention, but I feel we need to start somewhere realistic.You can easily check labels and stay away from enriched food. Choose 100% Whole wheat products when it’s about buying bread, pasta, rice, cereal, flour, and everything else you might find. Eat an organic apple a day. Don’t be robbed by ignorance. Guess, who wants you lacking energy, sick and busy teaching others to live in the same way?? You find the answer in John 10, 10.

If your’re addicted to consuming sweet beverages, go to the Lord! Remember, we crave what we consume. When you buy fruit juices check the labels. Flee artificial sweeteners (in the form of Aspertame or "Splenda") and high-fructose corn syrup! Look for organic juices and ice cream and try to not have more than max. 1 cups a day. I would recommend to get Silk Almond milk. They have wonderful tasting treats, coming in Vanilla or Chocolate taste.

If you think you don't have the funds to dig a little deeper in your wallet to change to 100% Whole wheat or organic versions of fruits & vegetable, deserts etc. think and pray about the management of your money! Keep in mind that when you start eating real nourishing foods you will need less of it! Working in a gym I a can tell you that american people are paying more every day for the well-being of their cars than they are willing to pay for the health of their own bodies.

Dear family, this was a long Spiritual Spa and I hope you sense the need to turn our attention to portion sizes and what we receive daily. If you do believe in the existence of counterfeits, who do you think is behind providing this abundance of fake food to the american people? (Let me give you a hint: El Diabolo) Let's pray together to our Father in Heaven: GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD AND TEACH US HOW YOUR PROVISION LOOKS LIKE!

Be blessed abundantly!