Category: Health
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Jesus: The bread of life
There is nothing like fresh bread. There is a wonderful Jewish bakery in Southfield, MI where you can smell the bread every morning.
The Eastern culture uses bread as an essential part of the meal. Many times the people would have a huge pot of something healthy and they would eat it together with friends and family. Imagine sitting around the table with a large pot of vegetables and rice and then this wonderful fresh bread just coming out of the oven. No need for utensils here, the bread is the star of the show!
Family and friends literally break bread and dip in that same pot together. It is a festive occasion and it really matters who is at the table. People didn’t eat with their enemies and you definitely didn’t eat with people who were not of the same mind and same judgement.
One of the seven “I AM” statements Jesus said in the Gospel of John was that he was “the bread of life” (John 6:35). The best way to know and fully understand the Messiah is by His own words.
Dear friends, Jesus wanted us to know that as essential as bread is in a meal (remember the bible is an Eastern culture book) that he is/should be that important to our lives. Some cultures would not even try to eat a meal without bread. Sadly, millions are living without Jesus.
There is a goodness, a peace, knowledge, truth and restoration that comes with knowing Jesus. We who believe must not bottle him up for ourselves. He was meant to be shared. Share the good news of Jesus Christ. His Gospel has changed my life. Has he changed yours yet?
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Welcome 2013!
Now that 2012 is gone and the fiscal cliff has been avoided, we can not get on to the real business of the new year and that is to make ourselves better. Each of the 365 days in this year will be special because they are from God. But what will we do with the time?I have pledge to lead a life stress-free and eating healthy. I want to exercise regularly and take more time to meditate. I am preparing to make the leap from being vegetarian to vegan and I want to spend more time alone. This is my year to take a break from the daily grind and take care of myself — spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. Everything that I do in 2013 will have 2014 in mind. This year should be a game changer.
What about you dear reader? How will you spend 2013? Hopefully, you will not waste any of the days living with regret. Hopefully you will not take any of the days for granted, but seek to live each day to the fullest. Will you spend the year making promises you can’t keep? Will you spend time preparing to do something all year long without ever getting anything accomplished? Will you be able to walk away from bad relationships or people who bring you down instead of build you up? Will you stop being afraid of the unknown? Will you take responsibility for your own mistakes? Will you return to church? Will you save any money this year?
Whatever it is that you decide to work on, I want to encourage you to go all out. Give your ideas a fair chance to breathe. Don’t allow those who doubt you to get under your skin. Turn a death ear to negativity and fly like an eagle this year. It is all up to you! Happy New Year!
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Another school year in the books!
Well, it’s June and that means most kids (and some are already out) are wrapping up another school year. It seems like they just started school and now it’s over. I used to get caught off guard every time school ended for the summer. By off guard I mean every year I would say that I wanted my kids to be active and have a fun, educational summer, but I had no idea of what they would do.I was so used to seeing kids go wild over the summer! Teachers even prepare to received these little wild ones in the fall. Someone had to put a stop to this!
I decided that it was time for my kids to make good use of the summer and as much as I wanted them to be active and have fun, I also wanted them to not stop learning. I wanted them to have fun learning and stimulate their minds as well as their physical bodies. Here is a list of five things that I have used in the past to accomplish this goal.
Summer bucket list:
1) Visit the library weekly — the library is a fun and inexpensive way to stimulate the mind of your child. This is great for the whole family. The library has a full list of activities to enjoy.
2) Take a field trip with the kids once a month and — dare I say — have them do a report on what they learned. I had to pay my kids for this, but they did learn. We went to museums, festivals and even a concert. These become great conversation pieces at the dinner table.
3) Have your children write a reaction paper to the movies they watch over the summer. They can discuss the movies with you and then put their thoughts down on paper.
4) Teach your children about the wonderful fruits and vegetables that come in season over the summer.
5) Cook with your children so they learn how to be self sufficient and they get hands on learning.
These are my top 5. You can also make sure they are reading books, they have chores to do regularly and you limited their television viewing. Kids tend to watch more TV in the summer than any other time of the year. More than anything else, make it a summer that they can remember. Don’t forget that you are building life long memories.
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Us big folks have to stick together!
Here is my pre-summer appeal for America to wake up to the fact that we are waaaay too big! When I say way too big, I mean fat. America is obese and I would like to do something to help.
I’m not talking about any diet you have ever heard of. This blog is specifically for big folks like me. As an experiment for the summer, please join me in three months of healthy eating. I call it the plus, minus, plus diet (+-+). For the first month, you still eat everything you normally eat and I just want to add some things to your diet. Then, for the second month we will eliminate a few things. Finally, the third month we will add some additional things and see what Mr. Scale says then. (I’ve learned to respect the scale!) This will just cover June 3 – September 3. If you like it and this diet works for you, email me and I’ll give you the next three months. The next set is called minus, minus, plus (- – +). I lost 100 pounds in 13 months doing exactly what you are going to read next. Now of course I went from eating everything to being a pescetarian who doesn’t eat any dairy and still no bottom feeders. This happened in my ninth, 10th and 11th months of dieting, but I’ll talk about that at another time. The bottom line is I feel great and I want you to feel great too! Ready?
For June:
Eat whatever the heck you want (or just what you are currently eating), but you have to eat these additions first. It does not matter if you are diabetic or not. Make the proper adustments.
You are to add five servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables. Two servings of vegetables can be cooked, but the rest (five pieces of fruit and three servings of vegetables) MUST be raw! When I first started doing this I thought it would be hard. I didn’t know the variety of vegetables I know now and I didn’t know how to appreciate a good green salad. I made green smoothies and you can knock off two of each category that way. Be creative and make sure you get the quality stuff…you deserve the best! This is the point when I discovered the Whole Foods Market!
The next thing to add is filtered water — lots of it! Undoubtedly your biological system needs to be flushed out so 60 to 80 ounces of filtered water would be appropriate. This is easiest to accomplish by just making water your drink of choice. Wake up in the morning and drink 20 ounces of water before you do anything. This will jump start your organs and help flush out anything leftover from the previous day. If you do it this way, it makes reaching 80 ounces easier. Your urine should be light yellow or clear — that’s what you are going for — clear pee! 🙂
For July:
You are going to look hotter than July when you take away the following things from your diet. You do not need to eat processed foods, dairy or red meat. I would love it if you would drop these things completely, but I know it is not realistic for everyone to do that. So, to make this as guilt free as possible, (and don’t forget to carry your additions from June into July), make an effort to eliminate these things. If you cannot go cold turkey, then start with a meatless Monday, or eat processed foods for just 10 days out of the month. Red meat should be treated like a delicacy and it would be better to eat chicken and fish than the red meats. You also need to stop all fried foods. It’s too hot to eat fried food anyway, is it? Purge these things from your diet and get active. Most of the time we eat because we’re bored. Get out an enjoy the summer!
For August:
At this point you should have had some level of success and you should be emailing me about the next phase. This month is easy because all you are going to add is consistent exercise. You should have more energy, but all you have to do is something that is consistent and will make you sweat. Walking is awesome! You need to take just 30 minutes each day (yes, seven days a week — it’s only three and a half hours!) to raise your heart rate, break a sweat and have fun. Consult your primary care physician before beginning any exercise program. This would be a great time to start with a personal trainer if you can. If not, there are several million books and dvds — the goal is to exercise. I strongly recommend getting a partner to exercise with. You two can be accountable to each other and be a source of encouragement. Don’t forget to carry June’s and July’s routine into August.
There you have it! My + – + diet to a new and better YOU! Make sure you pray and meditate at the beginning and end of each day. I’m here if you need me!
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Smelling the roses
The latest census says that those who are 85 and older are now the fastest growing population. We could learn much from these aged pill takers.I recently had the pleasure of talking with a few of them and in no particular order, these are the top 10 things I learned:
1) Wake up with the sun. Too many young folks sleep the day away and are unproductive. Wake up with a purpose and enjoy the sunrise.
2) Read twice as much as you watch TV.
3) Deny yourself and save money.
4) Eat healthy so that you can enjoy your golden years.
5) Get plenty of sleep.
6) Drink plenty of water.
7) Get plenty of exercise.
8) Control your use of technology; don’t let technology control you.
9) Enjoy family.
10) Practice loving everybody.
I wonder what it would be like if we spent 2012 with these 10 suggestions?
They all seem so obvious, but why don’t we do them? Who wants to wait for a degenerative disease to happen before we begin to take care of ourselves.
This age group is far more conservative, morally intellectual, far more cultural and more responsible than the generations after them.
Let’s accept the lessons and the responsibility that follows. If not, we might not have any roses to smell.
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Make a habit of it!
You know, I was recently thinking about the habits I have. Like everyone I have some good habits and bad habits and it made me wonder why we never think to capitalize on this concept?Habits are behaviors that are regularly repeated and can even occur subconsciously. Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when doing a routine task. Habituation is one of the simplest forms of learning, in which an organism, after a period of exposure to a stimulus, stops responding to that stimulus in varied manners – technically speaking.
Habits are sometimes compulsory. The process by which new behaviors become automatic is habit formation. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioral patterns we repeat are imprinted in our neural pathways, but it can be done.
The general population only seems to be interested in the bad habits. If someone had a habit of helping seniors with their groceries or helping them with chores, no one would care. If a guy had a habit of womanizing, we could draw a crowd pretty quick.
What if we were able to effectively trick our bodies into forming habits that were good for us? I mean instead of just falling into a bad habit, what if we were calculated with forming a good habit? Our bodies seem to respond well to repetition and at least in theory it would work. What if we formed a habit of eating five servings of vegetables and fruits per day? What if we made it a habit of giving our kids a daily dose of encouragement? What if we made it a point to make someone’s life a little easier every day? Whether it’s at home or at work, there are people in our lives who would be affected in a positive way if we thought to give them some unsolicited help.
It is the little things in life that make it worth living. It’s the things that money can’t buy. I need to make a habit of exercising daily. I need to make a habit of building the reputation of a helper. I need to make a habit of visiting my parents weekly. I need to make a habit of eating more salad.
What about you?
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Another year
It seems that the older we get, the faster the years go by.
We were just ushering in 2011 and now it’s over. The end of the year becomes a time where we are able to reflect on the things that happened and make changes if needed.
It’s a time where we should be deciding to end bad relationships because the year has revealed to us that there is no benefit in them.
It’s time to take control over the things that this year has shown us are out of control.
It’s time to rededicate our lives to the people who matter the most to us.
It’s time to talk to God about purpose, plan and repentance.
It’s time for us to make sure that we don’t miss out on the real important things in life because we’re too busy chasing the superficial things.
Don’t let 2012 come and go without you experiencing the things that matter most. Make sure you seize every moment to love someone, admire things God created like sunsets and rainbows and mentor someone that needs you — what God has hidden in these types of relationships make life worth living.
And finally, do the best you can to eliminate stress, the Western culture diet and revenge out of your life. All three of these things can kill you.
Lord thank you for allowing us to see another year. Grant us the courage to make the most of it and honor and glorify your name in it.Amen!
Happy New Year my friends!
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Your love of tennis means nothing
It seems in these trying times we live in that it is getting more difficult to navigate our relationships. One would think that we all needed therapy as sometimes it seems that we can’t do anything right.
Either we are not working together or we’re going in two different directions. Or we are being to critical or not critical enough. We are too self-fish, too demanding, too righteous, too lazy … well you get the picture. I want to share a concept with you that may shine some light on how we are supposed to get along and how we can gravitate toward the positive and benefit both parties — and we do this with tennis.Now I’m not asking you to go play or watch tennis. What I want to do is borrow a few concepts to make a point.Imagine your troubled relationship as a doubles team in tennis. To play doubles in tennis you have to know a little bit about the strengths and weaknesses of your partner. Not only do you have to know them, but you have to use their strengths and protect their weakness. Did you catch that? I said you must use their strengths and protect their weaknesses.
Some tennis players are slow moving to their weak side. Others might have a strong right hand, but a horrible back hand. When you learn these weaknesses and strengths you are able to set up your partner in a way that they are going to look like a pro. So if my partner is not as strong going to her left, guess who will play on her left side? You got it. Now, if I don’t play on her left side once I figure out that this is a weakness for her, shame on me!
If my partner has a strong right hand, then my job when I serve is to place the ball so that when it returns, it comes to her right side. Of course, it’s impossible to make this happen every single time, but you can manipulate that serve enough that it happens more than enough to win.
Why would I want to do that you ask? Well if I view my partner as truly being my partner, I have her best interest
in mind. If you are not sure of this, you need to have a heart-to-heart with your partner and see if she or he feels that you hold their best interest. What a wonderful opportunity life provides if the significant other feels that you don’t have their best interest. Take this challenge and honor your mate by letting him or her know that you admire their strengths and you promise to protect their weaknesses. Humility will make them say it back to you. Where as love means absolutely nothing in tennis, it means everything in true relationships.Tennis anyone?
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Is capitalism ruining democracy?
Biblical scripture tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil.Do you believe that?
We brag about our freedoms and we say that every country deserves our freedoms.
But what are we really saying with that statement?
Are we saying that we are the richest country? If we are saying that, it wouldn’t be true.
Are we saying we are the healthiest country? I hope not, because our healthcare system has been ranked in the 30s for years.
Are we saying that we have a better quality of life? That would simply be too hard to believe with the amount of prescriptions and over-the-counter medications we consume.
So what are we really saying?
Are we saying they should vote like we do? Or that they should pursue money … I mean happiness – like we do?
It seems to me that freedom is overrated. We are free to do a lot of things. And that also means that other things are free to do us.
One thing we do well in America is make money. We are totally about the bottom-line. Screwing each other for a percentage is really what we are about.
It’s sad when you look at what we could be doing and then see the damage of what we are doing.
For example, in our country, we have a law that says the only way we can treat cancer is through surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. Are these really the most successful methods or just the ones that cost the most? In Mexico, American doctors are successfully treating cancer with very high doses of vitamin C.
We also have a law that says we cannot sue fast food chains because of obesity. Why do we need a law for this?
If you look at how much money is being made off obesity the answer is clear. Suing one of the major sources of why we are fat would effect the bottom-line of those profiting from obesity.
We need to take control of this situation. The answer is simple: Take control of your own destiny. The answers are available you just have to keep looking.
The truth will set us free!
ClydeStyle 