Usually around this time of year, I am in depression mode.After whooping it up around the buffet tables on the holidays, I would finally crash around the second week of January. As the weather got colder, I would hunker down and hide. I did not want to see anybody, mainly;y because I felt like crum. I would drag myself out of bed in the dark, and be coming home from work in the dark. The state of the sky reflected my state of mind. I hated January and February. No sunshine, yeah, that was it! I read somewhere that if you don't get enough of the right kind of rays, then you would have a "disorder"....well, now! So I jumped into the S.A.D. box. Nice fit.
But this year was different. This is the year that God had said to get my house in order. It took me all year to clean out the closets and file drawers, but finally at the end of the year, I started getting my "house", i.e. this body in order. Cleanse, girl...cleanse! So this January, I have enthusiasm, energy and hope! It is by God's grace. He has given me the power to get through the de-tox, and the cravings are gone. I am satisfied with the parameters. I am fine without refined foods, chemicals and white junk. I do not miss the caffeine, either. It never helped. It hindered me. I move faster and more easily. I get things done. My ankles don't hurt by mid-afternoon. My head does not feel full of static and my sinuses are not grieving me. My joints are not aching and my bp is 117/68. I sleep soundly and deeply.
Life is coming into balance. I look forward to the work-outs...wow! I never thought that would happen! Even my husband has lost ten pounds!!! It's because I have been serving him more nutritious foods, and axshully creating an interesting lunch for him to take with him so that he can avoid the restaurant trans-fat trap.
I measured myself a few days ago. I had done that on December 10th, when I began this thing. And, guess what? I have lost 22.5 inches! It's a miracle! So today, I weigh 161 pounds with 26 more pounds to go. I weighed 128 at 19 before ever having children, so I thought adding a few pounds (135) would be fine. I am not at all rigid about it....We will see. It's the BMI anyway, not a number on the scale. It's about fluidity and flexibility, it's the mobility that counts. How I fit in my clothes, yeah, that's important, but having the energy to do whatever God calls me to do to help people, whenever. I have passed up so many prime opportunities to fully serve the Lord in my everyday life, and it was because I was too tired, too hung over from sugar, too full of snot offerings to do anything but try and get through my own problems, much less help someone else with theirs. I feel like Shelly Price looks...happy! I want to fill my life with color, and my atmosphere with praise to God for all the wonderful, wholesome foods He has given us to BUILD UP our temples, and not tear them down! Reminds me of a scripture from Proverbs that says that "A wise woman buildeth up her house, and a foolish woman tears it down with her hands". That's Proverbs 14:1.
I have a few tips to share about making life in the kitchen a bit easier.
Ginger Tea is a kick in the pants for colds and flu, and all kinds of inflammation. It has a spicy, Asian flair. When I go shopping, I always look for fat healthy looking ginger root in the produce section. If it is dry, shriveled. or moldy, pass it up. But this week, it was perfect at Brookshire's. I bought almost $7 worth. Cheaper than most packaged remedies, and so much tastier! I use it in stir-fry, dressings, all kinds of things.
When I got it home, I juiced it in my Champion Juicer...all of it. I poured it into a pitcher, and then into those cheap little ice cube trays that you can get at Dollar General, 3 to a pack. Then, I carefully place them into the freezer, and then anytime that I need some tea, I just put a cube of ginger into the teapot, add a packet of Stevia, and pour boiling water over it. Yum.
When making stir-fry, heat your Sesame Oil, add a cube of ginger from the freezer and a cube of garlic, and then your shredded cabbage and various vegetables and top it all off with some Bragg's Amino or Soy Sauce, add a bit of miso, maybe some cayenne, and you have stir-fry!
Here is how I do my garlic: Find a good movie, and sit down on the floor with a bag of garlic bulbs, and peel all of it, placing the cloves into a bowl. When the movie is over, put all the garlic into the Cuisinart (my DH calls it a "squeeze 'n fart"), add a healthy portion of Grey Celtic Sea Salt, and process until smooth. Put into ice cube trays, and place in freezer. The cool thing about this, is that the garlic is easy to spoon out of the trays, because the salt keeps it soft...and any recipe that I use garlic in has salt, too...so it works!
See ya next time! And remember to pray for Andrea Ivans! She is recovering from an accident that happened right before Christmas, her right(?) hand was seriously injured. Thank God it was not worse than that, but it has been painful, and difficult. Let's all pray for a complete recovery, with perfect mobility! By the way, if any of you are recovering from an injury of any kind, be nice to yourself, and nourish your body with anti-inflammatory foods and herbs. Sugary foods and those that create sugar quickly in your system are the same foods that produce inflammation.....remember, INFLAMMATION = PAIN!!!!!
Hey, maybe I will talk about that next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment