A Green Smoothie with God

Green Smoothie. Easy to make!

“Have you ever had a green smoothie?” I could’ve asked numerous folks in the audience that day, in fact anyone who was laughing at the actress who had just walked on stage with a kale smoothie, a prop to emphasize how differnt she was from “normal”. It wasn’t that funny to me. I thought the girl was smart to choose a kale smoothie over a chocolate milkshake. She was only playing a nerdy character but the truth is a green smoothie, when done right, has it all over a milkshake of any flavor.

First, you will need a blender. The base ingredient is a banana. Bananas make the smoothie sweet and thicken it. If you want your smoothie on the creamy side, the next ingredient is almond milk (or any nut milk). If you like it juicy rather than milky, add coconut water or throw in juicy fruits like oranges or watermelon and add a little water. Next, add some more fruit. Whatever you like, to give it a new taste. I like berries in mine. Some berries can make your green smoothie brown, so add a teaspoon of Matcha powder if you want a really green one. Next, give your smoothie some added nutrients with a tablespoon or more of flaxseed. Add a nut butter (tahini and cashew are great) for protein and healthy fats if you are going for a creamy smoothie. Last, throw in the greens. Kale is terrific but it is kind of tough and unless you have a super-speedy mixer like a Vitamix, you are going to get little kale pieces in your smoothie–not a bad thing really. I prefer swiss chard or spinach, or even a handful of mixed greens in mine. Anything will do though, even romaine. Blend it all together. I like to add a piece of ginger, some turmeric, and a few dashes of pepper for added antioxidant power.

Now, drink it! It is delicious and way better for your health than a milkshake. Here’s why. Bananas have potassium, berries are loaded with antioxidants, flaxseed contains magnesium, and almond milk has more calcium than milk. (Don’t shy away from these nut milks thinking they are only substitutes for the real thing: milk. Not true!) And the green stuff, most of them score 1000 points on the ANDI nutrient scale, the highest score a food can receive for nutrient content. Blending food like this helps your body get more nutrients. A smoothie is a meal, especially the creamy ones with the nut butters in them. If you want it as a dessert, using less almond milk and frozen fruit will render something more solid and cold like ice cream.

The best part of a green smoothie is after you eat one. There’s no holding your stomach with that uncomfortably full feeling. Instead, it energizes you. Your body jumps for joy and you are ready to tackle the day. Fatty cream from a fatty cow is not going to make anyone feel good except a calf. Now energize your spirit. Take a minute to thank God for the bounty of food He provides. Forgo that cut of red meat and if you miss the taste of it, eat it only occasionally or use only a small portion for the flavor. Enjoy the many types of beans and whole grains God gives to us. Don’t settle for milk and sugar, look to His grand variety of fruit and nut milks. Make your main dish at every meal a vegetable dish. The abundance of greens and other vegetables is a testimony to the love God has for us. Enjoy eating healthfully and don’t let anyone who laughs at your green smoothie put you off. You are the smart one, my friend, you have chosen the better way.

Look to your Bible to fill your hunger for spiritual contentment. Savor God’s great promises and the beauty and depth of His love for you that is written in the words of the New Testament and in the Psalms. So many things in this world fill our thoughts with anger, fear, and despair but these are not from God. We rush around checking off the tasks on our list. We imagine awful scenarios and bring ourselves to a point of anxiousness and hopelessness that makes God weep. Much of the sickness, poverty, war, violence and hatred of this world are of our own making; they are not the promises of God. Choose a better way by spending time contemplating God’s words to us because even with these difficulties that abound around us, God is able to reach out and calm our spirit with His excellent love. And lastly, choose the hope for a better life provided by Christ since He is the greatest of God’s gifts to mankind.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.  But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;  there is need of only one thing.Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

The Best Nutritarian Food and The Good News

Whole Foods displays ANDI score

Nutritarian food has a scoring system called the ANDI score. It rates food from 1-1000 according to the nutrient content. The score considers the number of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants in any given food and the higher the score, the better. At the top of the list are greens like kale, romaine lettuce, mustard, turnip, and collard greens. At the bottom of the list are meats, dairy, sodas, sweets, and processed foods.

The best way to eat the high scoring ANDI food is as a salad. Use one of the greens as a base and add chopped vegetables, onions, cooked mushrooms, black beans, and some high-fat ingredient like olive, avocado, or sunflower seeds. Top it with a homemade salad dressing. My favorite salad dressing right now is just a couple of tablespoons of humus.

Soup is a main part of nutritarian eating that I often skip, but I shouldn’t because soups are easy to make, fill me up, and help me to stay slim. Start with a base like carrot or tomato juice, or broth, add a green, some onions, more vegetables, some flavoring, and some beans. Dr. Fuhrman has a neat little chart for making soup in his Eat for Health book.

Cooked greens, beans, and roasted vegetables are great dinners. My husband likes brown rice with his meal, but these are good with whole wheat pasta too. I usually serve everything with onions, mushrooms, garlic, and some type of cruciferous vegetable.

Nutritarian smoothies are made from fruits and nutbutters. Without the greens, smoothies are a dessert that is thick and creamy and better than ice cream. For a nutritious breakfast, throw in the greens and use almond milk instead of a nutbutter. Serve with a slice of multi whole grain toast.

Eating this way is a healthy alternative to the standard American diet that is so heavy on meats and dairy that have a lot of protein but few nutrients. The nutritarian diet is easy to understand and is good news for anyone who wants to live life to the fullest and eat wonderful food.

The Good News that Jesus gives us helps us to live life to the fullest, too.  His news is easy to understand and without any secrets. Faith in Christ Jesus fills us with joy because it allows us to hope in the future. Our joy is a deep joy that knows that no matter what might befall us, He will be with us, and will help us. His love comforts us and we do not despair in our suffering or trials because we know this life is a shadow of the everlasting life we will have in Him.

Our faith may waver in the face of many who believe there is no God, that we are merely by-products of natural chance, and that our world is an ever evolving ecosystem without any control but our own. However, we are not able to control nature, nor are we able even to control our own actions. We are prone to many vices, to outbursts of rage, to chronic sadness,  and to self-centeredness. Who will free us from these evils? Thank God for our Lord Jesus Christ. He promises us His own Holy Spirit that resides within us and transforms us from our natural state into an everlasting state, from death to life, and from slavery to sin to the power to overcome sin. Though we may suffer for a little while now, we can hope in the future He promises where there will be no more tears and no more pain. Glory to God for He is faithful, even when we are not; His promises stand even when we are unable to believe them.

Faith comes from hearing the Good News about Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:17

Crock-Pots and The Miracle that is Christmas

Cheap gadget with great benefits. $20 at Amazon.

Crock-pots cook food slowly  over hours at a relatively low temperature. Since high temperatures can diminish the nutrition of foods, crock-pots are a great choice for Nutritarians. Crock-pots produce delicious soups and beans with little effort.

Start with a base: carrot or vegetable juice for a vegetarian dish or chicken or beef stock. Add beans and other vegetables, some spices, and at the end of the cooking time, a great heap of greens. It is so easy and so good for you. There are several bean soup packages that provide the beans and the seasoning together. Bean soup is a popular dish during the holidays and a southern tradition in the US for good luck on New Years Day.

Dr. Fuhrman recommends a serving of soup and a cup of beans once a day. Soup fills us up without a lot of calories, as do beans which are so nutritious and so satisfying that we can eat as much as we want. It is a good idea to start with a smaller portion of beans when first incorporating them into our diets and then work up to larger portions since they can create gas and bloating. Be sure to soak beans and cook them until they are soft. Eating beans regularly can produce weight loss.

I have a serving of Jesus every day. He keeps me positive because he fills me with gratitude. What a marvelous man who came to us so many thousands of years ago and provided an answer to our spiritual longing. He has a plan for us, for our future, and a love for us that will never end. He always listens and always has our best interest in His heart. It may be hard to have faith at times of trouble but reading His word every day will bring us the faith we need to persevere. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God.

During Christmastime, these weeks that surround that one day known as the birth of Christ, the world celebrates the light and love of Christ. Everywhere I go I hear music celebrating His birth, His power, and His glory. I am amazed that even those who do not know or believe in His name celebrate His light. The whole world cries out to Him without knowing it and no one can silence Him. This month is like a peek into the future when all of the world will bow down to Him. People string lights, hang stars, sing hymns, and give gifts without ever realizing the powerful glory that belongs only to our Savior. What a miracle it is.

“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” — Jesus Christ

Luke 19:40

Nutritarian Lifestyle and The Power Behind It

Today is close to the two-year mark of my nutritarian lifestyle, the turning away from processed foods and embracing a plant-based diet. I had been looking for a healthier diet for a long time, recognizing that the fatigue and general malaise I was feeling had something to do with my diet. I remember taking a walk with my son who was ten at the time, and fearing that I would not make it back home because my body was so tired. I was not overweight and was even jogging every day but my body was lagging, my thoughts hazy, and my energy level low. I could not seem to make the energy I felt in the morning last all day.

This is what I was eating: coffee with milk and sugar and a Pop Tart for breakfast, skipping lunch while drinking more coffee with sugar and milk and eating sugar candy lifesavers, and then eating pasta-based animal protein dinners at night.  My kids were not eating any better either: Fruit Loops or Captain Crunch for breakfast, processed meats or Lunchables for lunch, and the same pasta-based animal protein dinners. We ate a lot of fruit, but we were all running on sugar, starving our bodies of vitamins and nutrients. Is it any wonder I was feeling fatigue?

Trying to eat for health was mind-boggling. I prayed for wisdom and discernment every day. For ten years I floundered in a sea of diet advice. Some advocated high amounts of animal protein and some advocated whole grains with a heavy emphasis on brown rice. Then I ran into the Hallelujah diet that promotes raw foods, lots of juicing, and some religion. While riding this funny merry-go-round, I constantly fell off the wagon, continued to feel fatigued, and I knew that I hadn’t quite gotten it right. Finally, while flipping through the channels of my TV one night, I landed on Dr. Fuhrman’s PBS show and immediately bought his book, Eat for Health. Reading his book was like taking all the parts of these health diets and fitting them together. I knew right away that his was truly the answer to the health I was seeking. The book changed my life, my health, and my fatigue and other symptoms were clearly explained to me as symptoms of addiction to sugar, fat, and oil, that is, processed foods, and the consumption of too much animal protein. Those symptoms are gone now that I am eating better, and my prayers are less centered on myself and more on His Kingdom.

Jesus once said, ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find,  knock and the door will be opened. The most powerful tool we have against the darkness of this world is our faithful prayers to the God of Abraham, knowing that Jesus Christ has made a clear path through the darkness of this world, straight to God’s Holy throne and his listening ear.  St. John says that we have courage in God’s presence, because we are sure that he hears us if we ask him for anything that is according to his will. He hears us whenever we ask him and since we know this is true, we know also that he gives us what we ask from him.

It makes sense to me that our diets have become a source of ill-health that produces fatigue, hazy thinking, and disease, because a state of mind and body like this produces dulled prayers and a sense of hopelessness, and isn’t that what the dark powers of this world want? We should have courage then that when we start a diet of healthful foods, that the God of Light and Power is calling us and he will make us strong, for that is his will, and since we know that, we can ask him for help to eat well, and he will give it to us. We can pray for all our brothers and sisters that they might come to eat well too, because alertness of mind and spirit, overcoming the addiction to processed foods, and embracing God’s great harvest of healthful ones is, I believe, what he wants.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Ephesians 6:10

Nutritarian Christian on the Road

Go out and stand before me on top of the mountain.
1 Kings 19:11

I was travelling through California this past week with my number one partner in life and we were tired and hungry in an unfamiliar city, a potential setup for food failure. We found a small French bistro where we ordered escargot (a romantic food because we ordered it on one of our first dates), salads, and at the last minute I ordered a side of beans. Who orders ordinary beans at a French restaurant? But they were wonderful. Little white cannellini beans in onions and garlic and a tiny bit of pork. It was the best food I had on the whole trip.

We had a few weak moments ordering comfort food which was all around us, but it just wasn’t the same and we always ended up craving the better fare. Our last day was very hard. We had to eat breakfast at the airport. We stood in line at a typical “grill” when I decided to go to one of the coffee shops instead and order oatmeal. I added some fruit to it and sat down to eat. My husband brought his “grill” food over and sat beside me. When he opened it up, it was appalling. It was an egg croissant with bacon and potatoes on the side, all shiny with grease. The potatoes were greenish. He tossed it and got some oatmeal instead. Purposeful eating will turn to habit, and good habits will cause us to prefer the healthier choice.

God is truly awesome in the ways that He can change us and His touch is so light sometimes we forget His power. At Yosemite Park we drove up winding roads on high mountains. We were so high up and there were so many mountains all around us, I could hardly look, I was both drawn and frightened by the sight of it. When we drove into the park and I saw the sheer largeness of the granite I could have cried, really, just completely sobbed over how incredible it was, but I held myself in check 🙂 It was truly awesome and all I could think of was that my God is so much greater than I had imagined.

Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made.

Romans 1:20

A Nutritarian Burger and A Blessing from Your Father

Without the bun

I have had a craving for a burger lately. This is odd because I hardly ever ate burgers even when I was on the SAD diet. I think it is because the weather has become warmer and as I ride my bike through the neighborhood at dinner time, I can smell burgers cooking. Smells can “say” so much.

Since any conventional hamburger I might buy could be old and decayed, heavy on the pro-inflammatory Omega 6, and processed in several places only to be “mixed” together at the final and listed processing plant, I turn to the many and varied recipes for bean burgers, AKA vegetarian hamburgers.

This summer I plan on making a lot of bean burgers. Here’s my plan. Any cooked and mashed up bean will do, along with any seasoning you like. You can even use Grill Master made-for-meat seasoning if that is what you like. My sweet husband loves white beans; I love black beans. Black beans go well with hot spices and sweet veggies like corn, shredded carrots and beets. Peppers tend to override any flavor so I stay away from them, but they can certainly be used for added sweetness. White beans go well with garlic and onions. Garlic and onions cooked mash well; raw garlic and onion allows for more flavor. Red beans are another choice and give the burger a meat-like color. Once you choose your bean and the spice, you will need some glue to hold it all together like whole wheat flour or even oatmeal.

For my first attempt of the season, I fried onions, mushrooms, and garlic in coconut oil, then added cooked black beans, stirred in some corn, and added wakeme sea vegetables and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos  instead of salt. I sprinkled some Italian seasoning and some Garam Masala over it and mashed it with a potato masher. I did a little taste test. It was pretty good so I added the glue: oatmeal and oat bran until it was the consistency of something I could form into patties. I fried the patties in a little more coconut oil and served it on a whole grain english muffin with cilantro, avocado, lettuce, onions, and tomato. I also added some homemade banana pepper sauce as a condiment that a friend gave to me. It was delicious and I have saved the recipie. It is on my food tab.

Like the smells of hamburger cooking, we are often attracted by things that are not particularly good for us. Attractions can lead to desires that are difficult to break. I am certain that God wants to bless us physically. He wants us to be well, to be in good health and looking fit. He wants us to enjoy the gifts our bodies bring us and not to be ashamed of them. Here is a funny thing about me: I believe that when sin entered the world (when Eve ate the apple) our minds became dull and we stopped using our brains as we could have. Do you know that we only use a tenth of our brain power? Isn’t that odd? Why would we have these wonderful brains and not be able to use them to their full potential? So, when Christ returns and the curse of sin is fully removed through Him, I think we will have full use of this wonderful muscle that has been on hold for so long. I look forward to that and eating healthfully has been energizing for my brain! I think better.

I used to live for the next cup of coffee or sugary drink just so I could think better. But not anymore. Christ has shown me what is really good for my brain. He has freed me from those addictive chains. And He will free you too. The Father wants to bless us in this way. We don’t have to give up everything at once. Start eating greens and vegetables as the main food in your diet, before eating any SAD food, and  you will begin to prefer the more healthful foods. It will happen for you. I remember how hard it was to think I would never eat butter on my bread again. I laugh at that because there are so many more things we can put on bread than butter! There is SO much more good food than SAD food. Start exploring it today 🙂

When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for. —  Mark 11:24

The Diet Merry-Go-Round and Finding Inner Peace

Angel on my left shoulder: your diet says only one cup a day. Devil on my right shoulder: Make it a Venti

There is something in our nature that can make us obsessive compulsive when we are given a set of rules. Anyone who has followed a strict diet knows the power of feeling in control when we follow a diet successfully. It is such a good feeling to be in control that we can even over-follow the rules by making up even more strict rules until we begin breaking them, slipping now and again until we feel so bad about it, we give up. Likewise, when we find ourselves unable to follow the dieting rules we feel hopeless and inadequate, lost in a sea of confusion about food and how we can eat pleasurably and still maintain a healthy body.

Food addictions to salt, sugar, fats and oils corrupt the body’s ability to enjoy good food. Much of the SAD (standard American diet) contains unhealthful amounts of addictive foods. Blame it on capitalism. Our industry standard is to make people keep coming back to buy our products, so of course processed foods contain large amounts of these addictive foods. “Hungry For A Change” on Netflix is a very interesting documentary on this, and there are several books out about it, google Food Industry. “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us” is a recent book my husband found at Barnes and Nobel.

To beat these addictions, try adding sea vegetables for salt. They contain lots of minerals our bodies need. Replace refined sugar with dates and other dried fruits, as well as mangos and bananas. Stay away from fried foods, bakery items, and all white breads and rice which turn to sugar. Once we are free of these addictive foods, vegetables and fruits become so much more appetizing. We begin to crave salads, roasted vegetables, and fruits of all kinds. Lately I have been eating dandelion greens which are delightful in salads, and when I saw one sprouting up in a local parking lot, I was surprised to find it looked mouth-wateringly good to me.

Making greens and vegetables the main dish in every meal will put your body in an alkaline state. Stay away from alcohol (hard to do!), coffee (almost impossible!), and rich deserts (Aye!) and you will find yourself feeling energized and on top of your game. I often yo-yo through all of these traps. A glass of wine and a cup of coffee a day are fine but they are addictive and so one cup becomes two or one venti size  (Starbuck-speak for extra-large). A glass of wine turns up being two (who has any control after one?). So because we find ourselves unfaithful in these small ways we want to say forget it or make a new rule that forbids everything. Then we start slipping and we fall back into all of our food addictions. Pick your merry-go-round poison: caffeine, wine, sugar, salt. Is there any peace at all?

Thank goodness for Jesus Christ. It is for good reason that I relate my food struggles with my spiritual struggles. I know that my diet does not determine my spiritual connection to God, however it does affect how I feel about myself and my health. God wants me to be healthy and honor the body he has given me. Just as I can ask forgiveness for wrongs I have committed and know that God forgives me through Jesus Christ,  I can also ask for help to live a healthy life. One thing God has revealed to me is that I have spent a large portion of my life eating SAD food and so changing overnight into a healthful lifestyle of eating all the right foods will take time. If I stumble here and there, my Lord is  kind to me. He helps me to get back on track. God loves us just where we are.

In the Garden of Eden, Eve tells the serpent that she and Adam should not eat of the Tree of Life, nor should they touch it. A perfect example of adding a rule to a rule because God did not say not to touch it. They could touch it all they wanted, just not eat it. When they do end up eating the fruit, God tells them the consequences and then clothes them because they realized they were naked. The consequences of eating SAD food is disease but God helps us through the consequences. He clothes us with Christ so we can always go to Him, no matter what. Thanks to Him or I would have gotten off this crazy merry-go-round a long time ago.

Alkaline Proteins and Visionary Prayer

The Alkaline Sisters’ Food Chart

A plant-based diet that is slightly acidic will require more protein than a plant-based diet that has achieved alkalinity. If we do not eat enough protein, our muscles suffer for it since that is one place our bodies will get needed protein missing from our diets.

Most animal proteins are highly acidic and need alkalizing foods to balance out the net effect of a meal. Low sugar and high water content alkaline vegetables will balance out the acidity of animal proteins. Livestrong.com offers some great choices: celery, cucumber, iceberg lettuce, tomato and zucchini, broccoli, green cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant and spinach. These vegetables served with a small amount of fish, chicken, or meat can alkalize your meal.

If animal proteins are not an option for you, many vegetables have a protein content with varied amino acids, making it important to eat a large variety of vegetables to get all the amino acids our bodies need. Try roasting a variety of vegetables tossed in olive oil in a low oven (325) for about 20 minutes. Make sure not to blacken any by picking out vegetables done before the rest, like broccoli.

Most beans are acidic but high in protein. They need to be balanced with alkaline foods in the meal. For example, beans with garlic and onions over steamed kale. Beans are a staple protein for vegetarians and Dr. Fuhrman recommends eating them every day.

Glutinous grains have a protein content but are acidic unless they are sprouted. Sprouts are one of the few alkaline proteins. Health food stores sell sprouted grains but sprouts can be made at home. Vegetable and seed sprouts are usually eaten raw; other sprouts should be lightly steamed. Read more about sprouting.

Changing from our acidic, Standard American Diet, to a healthier one can seem overwhelming but don’t give up. Visualizing a new you with a  lifestyle that is energizing and healthy is important. Hold on to the vision you have of what you want to become. Having a vision like this is an important gift to you.

That gift of the new you is God’s grace to you. No matter what your religion or even if you have no religion, God’s grace offers you hope for tomorrow. Envisioning is a powerful tool you can use to reach towards that tomorrow you hope for. For Christians, envisioning can become a prayer exercise, offering to Christ your hopes for becoming the person God created you to be.

Sometimes in prayer we have no words to speak but our emotions reach out to Christ through the Holy Spirit that abides within in us and this Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans (Romans 8:26). Open your conscious to Christ’s holy love that lives within you by envisioning a healthier you (or someone you love). Envision His coming when there will be no more tears, no more death, and no more illness, and you will find that the peace of Christ will dwell richly within you.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20 & 21

Discerning What is Nutritarian Food: Soy Products and the Dark Forces of Evil

Soy can lurk in unlikely places

The only dietetic advice my oncologist gave me was to stop eating soy. The thought that soy was bad for me never entered my mind until then. When I googled “Is soy bad for me,” I found a resounding “YES!” Soy is big business and touted as healthful but there are some very unhealthful aspects about soy.

Soy contains plant estrogens that can increase the level of estrogen in your body. This is bad news for women because some common types of breast cancer feed off of estrogen. Phytoestrogens in soy can also lower testosterone levels. In addition, soy is thought to interfere with thyroid functioning. Like most grains, soy contains lectins and phytates which also interfere with digestion. Fermenting soy can reduce the toxicity, but it is still wise to eat only small amounts of soy, preferably in the form of miso, tempeh, and nato. Really, all grains should be eaten in moderation.

Trying to discern what foods are nutritious is often a walk in the dark. I had gone through several health diets before I found Dr. Fuhrman’s. When I stumbled upon his wisdom, I knew he stood squarely in the light of truth for me. I don’t think I would have recognized the truth without experiencing the previous diets. These were, The Hallelujah Diet (raw food), The Whole Grain Diet (a very weird trip), and the Alkaline Diet. Except for the whole grain diet, I found Dr. Fuhrman’s Nutritarian diet to be somewhat supportive of the raw food and alkaline diets, but providing much more flexibility and a wider variety of nutrition.

Finding out that foods I thought were healthy to be not so healthy was devastating, overwhelming me with a lack of will power to quit eating or drinking them. I loved soymilk. I used to drink the sugary vanilla kind (of course!). I still have trouble saying no to soy milk at Starbucks. Temptation to eat or drink the wrong things even when I know they are bad for me, reveals to me a flawed nature, a bent towards unhealthy living.

Once, when I was sitting at a table with several people headed for jail time, one young man talked about how as an eight year old, he used to steal cigarettes from his mom’s purse and smoke them. This was exciting to him at that age and almost impossible for him to stop. He said he knew because of this that there was something seriously wrong with him. I’ve known a lot of kids in my life and I know this is not so very unusual.

Jesus said we need to be reborn and He died on the cross for our seriously wrong nature, so that his own spiritually healthy body could be reborn in us. Recognizing the bent towards wrong-doing our physical nature possesses is the first step to finding the truth. Paul said that he did not do as he wanted to do, but did what he hated, and that only Christ could free him from his wrong-doing. Later, Paul explains how being reborn spiritually can transform us so that we are free from the devastating pull of our physical natures, and we can begin to grow and mature into spiritual beings aligned with Christ.

Christ’s spiritual transformation leads me to seek out healthy ways of living, including my diet. I earnestly seek to find out what is healthy and often pray for discernment because big business and years of lies have obscured the truth from me. In fact, I believe that the dark forces of evil have led us into disease and early death because of our human nature’s greed for more at the expense of others, and our natural propensity towards gluttony. When I look soberly at myself, the truth is devastating, and I know, like the young man who spoke out, that there is something seriously wrong with me. Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. – Psalm 51

Nutritarian Juicing

The big mouth cuts down on prep time

Nutritarians get a lot of water from all the fruits and vegetables they eat, but Johns Hopkins Alternative Medicine site recommends 8 glasses of water a day. That’s a lot of water.

So, I bought an Omega big mouth juicer. I had a hard time deciding what I really needed because the masticating juicers are supposed to be healthier than centrifugal but in the end, I knew the big mouth was for me because it cuts down on prep time. The opening is so wide I can put a whole apple in it.

My first juice was carrot with ginger. It was delicious. Carrots are sweet. Then I added some kale in the next batch, along with a tomato. All of it was delicious. Juicing is a good way to get the hydration we need without all the fiber that can bulk up and leave us feeling bloated.

Some folks feel that juicing is not good for you and can add weight. This is true if we juice a lot fruits and drink it as a beverage instead of the small meal that it is. Fruit juices have lots of sugar and calories. Vegetable juices are a better choice. Adding an apple for flavor can sweeten the juice, and still keep it relatively low-calorie.

Drinking a glass of vegetable juice can give you a lift in the afternoon. As the day wears on our bodies tend to get dehydrated and a quick nutritious drink can give us the energy we need. The same is true with our mindsets. As the day wears on, our spirits can begin to sag. Practicing the presence of God in the middle of the day reminds us that we are not alone. This life can be really tough and it is good to know that Christ has a plan for us, a plan to give us hope and a future.

Just as you would take time for an afternoon snack, take time to enjoy the Lord with songs of praise or a prayer of thanks. So many of our Bible verses declare the goodness of God, His love for us, and His faithfulness to us regardless of our failures. Remembering that Christ is always with us is a way to renew our minds and bring His powerful love into our lives.