A gigantic way we love or disregard ourselves is through our relationship with food.
In my forties, I asked God to show me how to age well with the least pain, the least disease and the most mobility. As I enter my last year of fifty-something, I believe passionately in what I have learned. My prayer for today's blog was to share with you five freeing stances on food. I hope the following have His guidance behind them. If not, it is my failure to hear that is it blame.
1. Ask God for His ideal weight and eating plan for you. He led me to His words in Genesis 1:29: "I've given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth and every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food." Though it is true that we are "free" to eat anything as referenced later in the Bible, my question was to know God's best for our bodies.
2. Get off the American treadmill of processed food. Over the last fifty years, our culture has migrated toward too busy, too fast and thus the need to compromise food preparation. If there is one gift to give yourself, it is to ask God to show you the truth about genuine nutrition vs. the American shortcut to ill health.
3. Consume less to no meat--eggs--dairy and dramatically increase veggies, fruits, nuts, whole grains and some fish. Though I worked out and ate reasonably well, older age metabolism changed my ability to lose weight. A friend whose nutrition investigation I trust said that our bodies' cancer-fighting tools work overnight, and the digestion of meat consumed at the evening meal competes for these same tools. I lost 10 pounds within 4 months of giving up meat at dinner. Thus began my journey to eliminating meat, eggs and dairy.
4. Understand how free radicals lead to rampant American body breakdown and disease. Once I understood this process, I opted for an antioxidant drink, but not until I gave up my stubbornness believing that I knew best. God really had to change my heart in this area.
5. Learn, learn, learn how acidic our diet and bodies are. Measure the acidic content of your own body and implement foods that move your body toward an alkaline state. It appears true that disease cannot exist in a body that has an optimal alkaline balance. Making this journey is homework, learning, choosing, resisting, embracing, believing.
The body is yours, the victory is available, the cost may be less pain, less disease and greater mobility. Who doesn't want this life to look like that?
