Spiritual Spa #15: The Ten Condiments

“He is wooing you from the jaws of distress
   to a spacious place free from restriction,
   to the comfort of your table laden with choice food."
                                                               Job 36, 16
Dear family in the Lord!

What a beautiful verse! Guess who is talking here? It is Job's friend Elihu, missing the point, but still stating a truth about God. Your health got you in distress? Well, come to the table of the Lord laden with choice food!

Let's be inspired today to learn more about a spacious place free from restriction...... your fridge!
Thinking about someones fridge, who is near and very dear to me, I had a revelation. In an attempt to translate the peace and order I feel in my heart and mind into reality I cleaned out my mother-in-law's refrigerator. And, oh what I found! I came across bagged and thoroughly molded limes, a whole bunch of sauces and dressing way past their best days (the award went to Steak Sauce dated 04/2001), besides that most of these were made from terrible ingredients, boxed up left overs of once fancied meals,..... let me wrap it up by pointing out; There were thoughts about getting a second fridge, "because we could not fit everything inside." 

When I was done with my spring cleaning we could fit a whole ham and a whole turkey into the same fridge.

Now, it's not my job to guilt anyone into conviction. But you can put one and one together and realize effortlessly that you are wasting money, space and health by this kind of a lifestyle. That is what leads me to share The Ten Condiments with you. The "Thou shalt not" is not really my place- let me share with you what thou shalt!

THE TEN CONDIMENTS

1. Only buy what you are going to eat. Yes, this involves a little planning ahead.

2. Only prepare what you are going to eat. 

3. Use the convenience of a fridge as a tool of for the cool by preparing healthy foods over the weekend to serve you as a quicker meal during the week. Like grilled chicken breast, steak or a stir fry. No need for harsh preservatives out of Frankenstein's chem lab if you make it yourself and eat it in time!

4. If you like dressing for your salad or sauces for your meat always go for quality. Buy and use one condiment at a time, with the least ingredients that exclude High Fructose Corn Syrup, Mono Sodium Glutamate, Artificial Colors or Artificial Flavors. Be aware that "Fat free" option defy the purpose of adding fat to your consumption of Vitamins. Did you ever try Organic Flax Seed/ Cold Pressed Olive Oil as dressing?

5. Buy one or two jams you really like. Or not. Jams or jelly usually drop a sugar bomb into your system, setting you up for a growth of more sweet teeth in your mouth. Ever considered making your own jam and adding only hints of Sucanat instead of cups of refined sugar?

6. Buy only organic and unsalted butter. You eat it daily, it is worth the extra $2.

7. Cheese should have 5 ingredients or less. Same with String Cheese or Shredded Cheese. Swiss Cheese or Mozzarella tend to be a better choice than Cheddar or mixes that are made with artificial colors.

8.  Always have Kale, Carrots, Onions, Peppers and Pre-shred Cole Slaw (without sauce!) in your veggie drawer. They make for a super quick super nutritious supper. That is- if you are going to eat these power foods!

9. A condiment you might find on top of your fridge: Salt. Throw out all table salt, especially the iodine fortified ones. They come with synthetic minerals that pose a real thread to thyroids and with that hormone household Exchange those with Salt that comes with real Minerals like Pink Himalayan Salt or Celtic Sea Salt. Found at Trader Joe's or Wayzata.

10. Always have 100% lemon juice in your fridge. It works as a quick sauce for grilling chicken with or you can add it to water or salads. 

With all that said, dear family in the Lord, I release you back into your day and hope you were inspired today to honor and value food as we know it comes from the Lord. Keeping a clean house in your fridge will help you experience the spacious places without restrictions, helping you with not forgetting about left overs, veggies or sauces, enabling you to purchase the quality food your body deserves.


Be blessed abundantly!

Spiritual Spa #14: A fair ground called blood sugar

And Jesus said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51


Dear family in the Lord Jesus!

How is everybody doing? I mean you, and you and you! And how are the people near and dear to you?
I hope you are in a season of life right now that will lead to greater growth in every aspect.

After my very first own designed five week class on Nutritional Education (held at inFIT) I have seen fruits and changes in my clients like I could not have imagined. Some really caught "the spirit!" I am talking about the spirit of catching a glimpse of your own value. You will look at life differently when you realize that you have value.

Some of my clients started to speak out of this new conviction. They would mention that they went shopping and did not stop to look at the soda/pop aisle. They realized their bodies deserved better. They would share how they have gone past soda to, excitedly, drink half their body weight in ounces of water ever day and they shared that new knowledge with others. It started to dawn on them that they don't have to get french fries while on the run and that there are great salads out there, hidden in those fast food restaurants. 

What does that have to do with today's Bible verse? Well I dare say that, just like Jesus' disciples caught the spirit of who Jesus is and the authority He carries, my clients have started to get an idea of the quality of life that can come with well chosen nutrition. I want to go even a step further and say that this is similar to Jesus declaring an open heaven and angels ascending and descending, which I believe speaks about God's presence, plans and purposes being done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, I am not saying that what we eat will open the heavens like Jesus' authority can, but I do want to say that when we treat our bodies as good stewards, nourished for a day of serving Him in what ever shape or form, we are obedient to treating our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit and that comes with great blessing.

Guess what you don't want to see ascending and descending in your life though - your blood sugar.

I came to the conviction that cravings for junk food or sweets, fatigue, depression, you name it, can be the result of a blood sugar index that looks more like a heart beat chart after a spin class. In case you didn't know- we are truly made of sugar! My Dad would tell me that I am NOT made of sugar when I would not want to ride my bike to school on a rainy day but he was wrong - I guess I should call him up one of these days and rub this in his hairy face! The fact is that we are so greatly made of sugar that our bodies react to too much sugar or too little sugar in an instant.

Elevated high blood sugar levels (I like to call them "spikes") are called hyperglycemia and can lead to diabetes. Depressed blood sugar levels ("dips") go by the name hypoglycemia. Spikes in the blood sugar are to be taken very seriously. Since the blood sugar is regulated (I am talking as a personal trainer here, so don't base your doctoral theses on what I say!) by a hormone called insulin you can grow resistant to it. That leads to the dire need to get insulin from other sources; like what the diabetes doctor would have to offer. Blood sugar "dips" should not be treated with little concern either- you are basically running on an empty fuel pump when your blood sugar is low. Talk to my father-in-law if you want to learn how bad that is!

Now, you might object by saying that your days of drowning bags of M&Ms and Twizzlers down your throat are over and you barely eat sugar now. But the truth is that there is sugar, or a form of sugar, in pretty much everything we consume. Even if it comes right from nature. The food group is called "carbohydrates" and refers to all forms of sugar, syrup, grains, veggies and fruits. The popular "low carb diet" usually involves the instruction to just lessen your intake of grains, when you should be told to drastically bump up our fruit/veggie intake as a replacement for most other carbohydrates (like Pasta, Bread, Crackers etc.) in your diet.

Are you prepared to hear about the biggest shocker of the day? You have probably seen those TV adds made by the makers of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) telling you that HFCS acts just like other sugar in your body and your body cannot tell the difference - sugar is sugar, right? Well.
I used to think they were lying bluntly into my face, but now I know that they were actually speaking the truth - a partial truth, that is. It is sugar, that's the truth, but what they don't say is that HFCS affects hormones (and, with that, blood sugar or vice versa) more than regular refined sugar. It spikes your blood sugar more; it affects your metabolism more. This is information you almost never hear from an official site though. Why? Guess what? It all comes back to government subsidies of corn production. HFCS is subsidized and, therefore, cheap to produce.

But with all that said, if you know me you know I like to stay away from any kind of refined sugar all together. When I made up my mind to do this, life became so much easier, I became so much lighter, my sleep got so much deeper, and my health got so much better.
 
So how should your blood sugar level look? Ideally you want to be able to sustain a moderate level all through the day. How is that possible? Well, let me start out by stating, "It is not impossible!" My clients have started to implement something that has brought them great success in this area and that little something is called PLANNING AHEAD!

You need to go grocery shopping with the attitude of being a valuable human being. It is usually rich people that say things like "If only I could buy health," but, at the same time, we regular people are so busy running the rat race that we don't realize we are putting our health at greater risk every day by trying to save money by buying cheaper processed foods and drinks. In other words, buy food that is good for you. The only food you eat should have a mother or come from the ground or trees and have under gone as little processing as possible. Like Ezekiel Bread.


You need to start your day with water and have breakfast within the first 30 minutes of waking.


You should eat every two to four hours throughout the day; breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid- day snack, and dinner.


If you really want to see changes to the better in how you feel, avoid refined sugar. Obvious sugars like in desert and hidden sugars, added to your processed meals. Don't set yourself up for the roller coaster ride! There is nothing fun about being addicted to sugar.


Avoid dips in your blood sugar by carrying an apple and string cheese in your purse to tied you over until the next meal. People suffering from hypoglycemia can do and say horrible things. My husband has episodes of this every once in a while (we are working on his nutrition) and I know now to forgive him for he doesn't know what he is doing.


You need to be aware that processed grains act in your body just like sugar. They give you the spikes that will cause you to reach for those cookies. So NO MORE EXCUSES for buying white flour or enriched flour. If you are eating grains, which doesn't have to be a whole lot, go 100% whole wheat and, even better, organic 100% whole wheat.

With all that said, I will release you back into your day with the hope that you caught the spirit and the truth that you are valuable and worth the effort it takes to become a good steward of your body! I hope that all that you see ascending and descending in your life would be those angels of God :)

Be blessed abundantly

Spiritual Spa #13: Foods and moods in the eye of the beholder

I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?  

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. 
Psalm 121, 1-2

Dear family in the Lord!

Let's start today with some food for thought; chewing on this amazing psalm!

We all have been in need of help. Getting older, and with that hopefully more mature, may have helped us overcome our desire for dependence or independence and opened our sight up for interdependence. There is no shame in asking for help. It takes a wise person to realize that one's wisdom has come to an end. Sometimes all we need is a little push in the right direction. There is great power in a social network that displays common interests on the one hand and varieties of talents, experiences or backgrounds and, with that, resources on the other. What you know or can do may be of dire need to a friend of yours! Are you aware that life can be called fruitful when you make yourself approachable? 

Well, part of the Good News, the Gospel, is that God is approachable! And He is very fruitful. That is what the quoted verses talk about. Man realizing that he is totally dependent on God, who created the majestic mountains, the humbling heaven and the enormous earth. Man realizing, as well, that God made him an interdependent being. Body, soul and spirit- Jesus is the foundational fulfillment of all our needs. (I of course say that from a New Testament point of view) As a former theology student I had to add this notation!!

The psalmist talks about lifting his eyes to the mountains. Maybe you can compare that to your soul trying to see the world from a "higher perspective," a different point of view,  the famous "meta-level." As much as this might help us see things clearer or feel superior for a while, the soul is limited just as a mountain is incapable of actually touching heaven. I believe this is essentially why people share a feeling of deep emptiness inside; they haven't connected with God in their whole life or that day.  

God is also the creator of heaven and with that we are eternal beings that can have the Holy Spirit if we believe in Jesus Christ and asked our Father in heaven to seal and baptize us with His Spirit. With the Spirit we can see the world truly from "God's perspective" which will always be higher than any high place man can climb on. That is part of being a son or daughter of God, we have a Father who empowers us to face the world and with that glorify His name! 

Then we are also fleshly beings. And the flesh (the body) connects the most with the visible earth. There is wisdom and healing in the creation of God - the earth. By realizing that God will answer the call for help, I believe He steers our attention, wholesome as always He approaches us, through Jesus to the earth as well. And when I say earth I mean of course environmental influences, lifestyle and nutrition.
You might wonder by now how I come up with these clever ways of connecting various Bible verses with nutrition :) Believe me, it is the Holy Spirit weaving it into my thoughts. This one literally came while taking a shower. All I can do is sit down with preferably a laptop and follow the thread - that is usually after the shower and much better for our domestic laptops. Praise to the Lord!

Now let us see in what way God could meet you and your needs through nutrition! 

If you need help right now because you feel the winter blues, I would, first of all, ask you if you and your creator are on the same page. Is God feeling blue? Does he want you to feel blue? Is the ball in your court to clean up a situation by making a tough but healthy choice? Or are you eating like your are eating out of a garbage can? Do you eat mostly without fruits and veggies and skip breakfast all together? 

Here are some tips that will help you deal with winter blues if you feel like God wants you to start "beholding" your earthly being more:

- Vitamin D is important! Go outside and take 20-30 minute walks in the sun. Fifteen minutes of that should be without sunglasses so your body can absorb the positive effects of the sun.

- Food sources of Vitamin D include organic eggs, fatty fish like salmon or tuna, liver and milk.

- Vitamin B. There are five important B's to keep in mind: B1, B2, B3, B6 and B12. 

 Food sources include fish, meats, dark green leafy veggies like spinach, carrots, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, black beans, pinto beans, organic corn, mushrooms, nuts, flaxseeds, yogurt, whole grains, bananas, strawberries, oranges or kiwi. 

Aim daily for various rainbow colors and emphasize the veggies! A minimum of 5-7 servings should become a lifestyle!

- Here is a list of true good mood food. Always try eating it in it's least processed form (I only mention foods that I haven't listed before but you can also include the foods mentioned above!):

~ Asparagus

~ Swiss Cheese

~ Chicken

~1-3 pieces of Dark Chocolate

~ Chickpeas

~ Lemons

~ Oats

~ Protein

~ Saffron

~ Sardines

~ Seafood

Adding to this list, you want to mostly stay away from simple carbs that will give you the emotional roller coaster (found in [refined] sugar, honey, agave nectar, artrocious artificial sweeterners like aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, white flours, white rice, enriched grains, alcohol).

You want to grab the whole grain foods (found in Ezekiel Bread or whole wheat pasta) or other sources of complex carbs (such as sweet potatoes or spaghetti squash), the good fats (as found in butter from grass-fed cows, swiss cheese, cold pressed olive oil, coconut oil, avocados or raw and unsalted nuts). Remember to have a serving of that kind of fat with your 5-7 servings of fruit and veggies! Eating meats along with these proteins will make you feel full longer and help your body replenish itself.

Hey, and by the way, frequent vigorous exercise is a great idea for most people!

With that I release you, dearest reader, into the winter that hopefully soon appears to you in it's unique and potentially divine beauty!

Be blessed abundantly!

Spiritual Spa #12 Hearts on fire!

 ³⁰ When he (Jesus) was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³² They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24, 30-32

Dear family in the Lord!


Welcome to 2012! The year is as new as the list of things to talk about is long. So let's begin by talking about biblical heartburn.

If you thought the Bible doesn't address heartburn, be hereby proven otherwise!

What is the biblical definition of heartburn (in my own words)?
A strong conviction of the Holy Spirit within a follower of Jesus Christ, leading to a deeper relationship with Jesus, more love, more founded and personal understanding, God-glorifying spiritual fruit and advancing of the Kingdom of God.

Causes: The Holy Spirit.


What is society's definition of heartburn (inspired by the Mayo Clinic)? 
Heartburn is a burning sensation in your chest, just behind your breastbone. Heartburn pain is often worse when lying down or bending over, advancing the Kingdom of GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease). 

Causes (thanks, Mayo Clinic):  Heartburn occurs when stomach acid backs up into your esophagus.
Normally when you swallow, your lower esophageal sphincter — a circular band of muscle around the bottom part of your esophagus — relaxes to allow food and liquid to flow down into your stomach. Then it closes again.
However, if the lower esophageal sphincter relaxes abnormally or weakens, stomach acid can flow back up into your esophagus causing heartburn. The acid backup may be worse when you're bent over or lying down.

Now that is what you can call a discrepancy between the Kingdom of God and the world!


Selah (chew on this one).

Writing about Stomach issues is near and dear to me for a few reasons that I will focus on today;

1. As a child I suffered from frequent stomach ache.
2. We are still paying off a big bill from an endoscopy for my husband's stomach ache, executed by zealous doctors and nurses, with ZERO results. Ouch!
3. I really get angry when TV tells me to "fight back" by popping pills when bad food choices reveal their painful consequences.

All three points have one common solution: Lifestyle changes. 

Point 1; My parents could have figured out sooner to not feed me multivitamins on an empty stomach. It probably would have helped also to hug me more and tell me that school doesn't matter that much in the grand scheme of life.
Point 2; We could have figured out sooner (and saved a lot of ka-ching!) that sleeping on the stomach can be a reason for (to doctors) mysterious stomach pain.
Point 3; According to cnn.com sources 60-70% of antacid consumers should not take them, but "fight back" with smarter food choices. I am tired of using the words "quick-fix culture," but they again apply.

Let me dwell on that point. Americans spend over $10 billion every year to deal with their tummies running over with acid. Do you have antacids in your house? Imagine what a country can do with $10 billion spare, left over, donated for charity...

Let me give you analogies about the lifestyle of nutrition induced heartburn treated with antacids: 
It is like sleeping around and then taking the "pill after" to not have to deal with consequences. Or, if this was too drastic, it is like having your car sit outside through the seasons and then just paint over the rust instead of cleaning it first. You know the rust will cause you problems in the long run.

And that is exactly the case with taking antacids. You need acids to digest food. That's why the side effects of taking antacids are, amongst others, diarrhea or constipation. Both not pretty. Besides bones become more porous. Not helpful either. Those are just a few thoughts about antacids, not treating heartburn though is just as dangerous, it can develop into serious reflux issues, asthma, ulcers or, even worse, stomach cancer.

So what to do?

As always, let's seek out where culture has helped us become complacent and allow the Holy Spirit to bring us back on track. As always I am not giving medical advice, see your doctor, or better in my experience, chiropractor and learn why you have the condition and what could be a solution rather than a symptom quencher.

-If you deal with heartburn start paying attention to WHEN it happens. If you know that eating spicy foods will hurt you, stay away from them. Television will tell you different. Choose to be "above the influence."

-If you know coffee or alcoholic beverages cause you pain; make the hard but smart choice because you love yourself.

-If your cloths are too tight, especially the belt, loosen up but on that note lose excess weight. That is always a good idea and will help your health in every way.

-Stay away from eating or drinking sour or acidic foods, like fruits or juices, on an empty stomach. Listen to your body! When you consume fruits and vegetables have a little processed form of fat with it (an organic apple with a cheese string, banana with a handful of raw and unsalted almonds, frozen berries with plain unsweetened greek yogurt and so forth!)

-Fatty foods, which I call processed "Franken food," are a common cause for heartburn. Consuming these (many of which you have been warned about) actually slows down you digestion and with that your metabolism. The food stays longer in the stomach, meaning more acid has to come around, leading likely to heartburn. Does it makes sense or not? How many more reasons do you need to stay away from deep fried, greasy, no nutritional value empty calories?!

-When you eat, take your time! Abundant chewing is always a good idea as well, especially when dealing with digestive issues.

-According to my research fruit juices, tomatoes, garlic and onions can lead to heartburn as well, so pay attention to what you eat and how your body responds. I for one, at this point, cannot handle raw spinach, even if is organic. That makes me very sad but for now I have to live with it and respect my body.

-As a personal trainer I should mention that there is such a thing as exercise induced heartburn. If you deal with too much acidity avoid jumping, running and especially crunches. But if I met you in the club, believe me we would find a way to work your abs!

Let me wrap up today's post with one more important and very common cause of heartburn: Stress.

Stress can lead to bad food choices, leading to heartburn. Simple changes like preparing your food at home, bringing along a healthy snack (as described above) can prevent a last resort stop at you-know-where-you-shouldn't-be.

Distress can actually slow down your digestion, causing a whole bunch of varied problems within your intestines. So, remember when we talked about what Jesus said about food going through the body and then leaving it (Post #7)? Stress in your life should do the same. Don't hang on to your responsibilities as if you didn't have a Father in Heaven who knows what you need before you can think it.

Tell your Father that you long for the heartburn as described in Luke; that kind of sensation that has you caring about all the pieces of Jesus and not all the pizzas with cheeses.  And then walk 14 miles in one day just to share him with others.

Be blessed abundantly!

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!

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!

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 21^st 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!