Food is Medicine!

27 Mar

 

Food is Medicine

Food is Medicine

Food Is Medicine!

In my last blog, I shared a very personal story entitled Pathway of Healing.    I wanted to share my family’s story so that when I write articles such as this one, that you will believe me when I say, that I understand how difficult it is to go forward when you can’t seem to grasp the information that is being given to you!  In my blog Pathway to Healing, I conveyed that I understood how it felt to sit before doctor after doctor only to feel hopeless.   Please do not get me wrong, I do not fault the doctors for not knowing all the answers that my family needed to know.    Rather, I want to encourage you to seek out the answers from professionals, but to ultimately seek God for wisdom as to where your answers can be found. After all doctors are mere humans who learn about symptoms of sicknesses and disease. They are Practitioners that practice medicine!  Doctors can diagnose many sicknesses and diseases, and prescribe treatments to help many who suffer.  I am grateful to have several wonderful doctors that my family can go to.   However, it is my personal belief that all healing ultimately comes from God, the Creator of the all earth and everyone on the earth!  It is also my personal belief that God will lead us to our Pathway of Healing, spirit, soul, and body!

2 Corinthians 1:3(KJV)  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

I am currently taking a course on nutrition and health so as to better learn how to feed my family but to also learn how to use many natural remedies or DYI remedies instead of relying heavily on drugs whether over the counter or prescription.  The course has been such a help to me.  It is answering many of my questions as to the benefits of why we should eat or not eat certain foods. Over the past several years I’ve been learning about nutrient dense foods and how using food can heal many issues in the body and relieve many symptoms.  Food is medicine. This could be natural food, or spiritual food.  I also wanted to learn how to share what I’ve learned with others!    I know over the course of many years, that whenever I learned something new I simply tried to implement it. A few examples:  we use local honey not only to replace sugars, but also because it helps my family with allergies.  We use Oil of Oregano in many instances where we need an antibiotic, we’ve replaced our cooking oil with coconut, olive, and sunflower oils!  I simply took it step by step as I would learn the benefits of certain foods.   Now these items are regularly consumed by my family.   I’ve learned not just in this nutrition course that I’ve mentioned but over several years of trial and error what benefits the health of my family.  Because I am not an expert, but a housewife and mom, I found myself shying away from conversations dealing with nutrition and health issues. However, I now realize I’ve gained some wisdom over the years! I may not have a degree but experience is a great teacher! I hope to pass on what I’ve learned to those who may need it!

Pathway of Healing!

23 Mar

Pathway of Healing!.

Pathway of Healing!

23 Mar

Pathway of Healing! Jeremiah 30:17 (KJV)For I will restore health unto thee, and heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord

Trying new things are usually always exciting, but not often easy.  Many times we would rather stay in a comfort zone or routine where we are not really happy rather than try something different!  This week I am beginning  an 8 week course that is challenging me to think differently about nutrition and about lifestyle in general.  As a wife of thirty-five years and a mother of two, I have become very aware of the need to make drastic lifestyle changes.  I am a firm believer in complete healing, spirit, soul, and body!

Most people make changes by choice.   However, sometimes circumstances force us to make changes and choices that we were not prepared to make. For instance, just because we know to eat healthy and to exercise etc. doesn’t mean that we do or will.  However, when symptoms of sickness began showing up in the body, it suddenly becomes an alarm to seek change and hopefully make healthier lifestyle changes. I know that this blog is rather lengthy, but I am writing to sound an alarm so that maybe you the reader can make a choice for change, rather than have sickness and disease make the choice for you.  I am also writing this to share a very personal story that has had my family seeking new and better ways to live.  Life should not be drudgery, but rather a joy.  However, when sickness tries to dominate a member of the family it is a battle every day to fight for a life of joy!

One day in December 2007, my husband went outside to work on a truck of his that had something wrong with it.  As he had done many times before, he climbed underneath it.  However, this was a day that would change our lives forever.  As he lay beneath the truck, he felt something very strange like gushing water race through his body and hit his lungs!  It was all he could do to crawl out from beneath the truck and get into our home.  This day sent our family into a tailspin!  He of course immediately made a doctor’s appointment and was treated for Bronchitis’s.  He was given inhalers, and antibiotics that seemed to help.  But as soon as the antibiotics were gone, he was right back to where he was, if not worse. After that day, he could not take a deep breath into his lungs.  His oxygen count remained really low, especially when he would try to do anything physically. He became very weak and frail. We then embarked on a long journey of seeking a doctor that could find out what was wrong with him.

A long story shortened, we visited many specialists, many of which immediately through labels like COPD, or Obesity.  They placed him on oxygen and sent him home to die. One rude specialist basically told my husband that all of his symptoms was a result of being “Fat!” When my husband went back to see him for a checkup, he literally said “Oh, I am really surprised that you are still alive!”   Don’t get me wrong, my husband was obese, he knew this, but he had always been heavy.  Yes we knew that weight was an issue, but not the issue. My husband proceeded to lose fifty plus pounds and felt better but not well! In 2012 my husband was placed in ICU.  He had a battery of doctors to see him, and we honestly met a sweet and compassionate lung specialist that my husband still goes to.   However, when my husband goes for his checkups, the lung specialist listens to his lungs and has said, “It’s crazy, your lungs sound as good as mine!”  But still his oxygen count would drop every time he tried to move!

We finally went to a Holistic Naturopath at the recommendation of several friends we knew. She did a number of tests on my husband and found out that he had several food allergies!  Also that he was very toxic.  He had worked in a shoe factory for several years around many chemicals, and then went on to become a diesel mechanic where he not only handled diesel fuel on a daily basis, but also used chemicals in the parts washers etc.  So it made sense that it could be something to do with toxins, or allergies.  She began a detox regiment and advised him on what foods to avoid.  Immediately he seemed to improve, but still struggled with his oxygen count dropping.

Finally we have gone to an allergy doctor that also done a battery of allergy test to find out that my husband is allergic to many environmental things such as trees, pollens, molds, grasses, etc…Really things that you can’t change.  He is proceeding at the recommendation of the allergists to take allergy shots, which again has helped, but has not taken care of the issue of his oxygen dropping. Well I know that I wrote a very long story to simply get to this short point!  We are seeking answers that we know are out there for us. Many years of trying various things to find healing has gained us a lot of knowledge in natural approaches to healing and wellness.

As we learned to do certain things, we have implemented them to the best of our ability, to cause our whole family to be healthy.  We feel as though we have gained much wisdom and great strides.  We’ve learned that the body is a wonderful creation that God placed our spirits into.  We’ve also learned that given the right nutrient dense, natural and raw foods will cause many issues that occur in the body to be taken care of naturally which really gives us power!  Finally we have learned that as God has helped us time and time again in our pathway to healing, He has given us a desire and a compassion to help others along the way!

Choices are Power!

12 Mar

Choices are Power!.

Choices are Power!

12 Mar

Inspiring one dreamer at a time!

 

Choices are Power!

Our choices are power! One of the most important things in Life is freedom of choice!  I believe that we are the leading characters in our own life story!   I also have a personal belief that God the Creator is the author of my life story, He holds the pen.  However, He has given me a free will to choose what my life will be.  He tells us that we have the power to choose life or death.

Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

:20 (KJV)That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.ither choose life or death, blessing or cursing. 

Are you holding the pen to your life story or have you handed over to other people, or circumstances? I often hear people say “I didn’t have any choice but to do this or to do that!”  It is true that sometimes it seem as though we have no choice, but we always have a choice.   We often think by not doing anything when circumstances are too difficult that we have not made a choice, when in reality, by doing nothing, we’ve made a choice! We chose to let the circumstance write that paragraph or chapter in our life’s story.

Unfortunately, many of the circumstances in life are not fair or just.  In life we are always going to have conflict. Many times in our story the circumstances are the villains.  They are the bad guys because once we surrender to them; they like to dictate how we live from that point on.  Sometimes we live years of our lives chained or imprisoned by a circumstance where we thought we had no power to make a choice, but the good news is we still have power to make choices. Let’s make a powerful decision to come out of that circumstance and began a new chapter in our lives!  We can turn the page and break the chains of past decisions!

Yes, sometimes it is easier said than done, however if you know that you were created to have a good life then the decisions are easier to make.  You must realize that God wants better for you! He has already written a good book about you!

Psalms 139:13 (KJV) For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

14I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

15My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

16Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

17How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

18If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

 

I hope that from this day forward that you use your power to make great choices for your life!  My prayer is that your life story will have a wonderful ending.  It is not a fairytale to believe that you can be happy ever after!

“An Author Speaks”

11 Mar

“An Author Speaks”.

“An Author Speaks”

11 Mar

It was a privilege to be a guest Author on Gridiron Granny Football Fanatic.

http://www.gridirongrannyfootballfanatic.blogspot.com/2015/03/welcome-christine-gilliam-hornback-to.html

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

26 Feb

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

26 Feb

Inspiring one dreamer at a time!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race!

Have you ever just had a week of being busy but it seems like nothing is getting done?  Face it, life happens!  Sometimes our great plans of what we were going to do for the week, year, or even our life changes.  The key is to be willing to roll with the changes!  Yep, that has been my life recently, but yet when I look back I can see that I’ve accomplished much more than I thought I had.   I’ve actually made some huge strides toward some goals that I’ve been trying to meet this year!

It may sound wonderful to go through life without any bumps in the road, but I believe it would also be very boring!  I have found that when the bumps of life happen, that I can use them to my advantage. They can show me a true picture of what I am made of. Sometimes they detour me to another pathway that was good for me.    I admit there have been some huge bumps at times, so huge in fact; I really never thought that I would make it over them. However, God’s grace is always sufficient for me!

2 Corinthians 9:8  (KJV) And GOD is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

This week’s blog is not to brag on how much I’ve gotten done, but rather I want to encourage you to see how much you are getting accomplished! Take time to realize that God is co-laboring with you by making all grace about toward you!  I want to encourage you… don’t give up on your goals or dreams, but press in even when it seems that nothing you do is accomplishing much.  It was the Tortoise that won the race, not the Hare.  Slow and steady wins the race! If you haven’t quit, then you are still in the race, the prize is up ahead!  Keep contending! Life is a marathon, not a sprint! Can you see that you too have made great strides even though you may feel as though you are taking baby steps toward your dreams!

I cheer you on my friend!  I would love to hear about your successes….

 

Painting for Fun and Therapy!

24 Feb

Painting for Fun and Therapy!.