Peeling a Layer

Did you ever have one of those enlightened moments when you know God just revealed something about yourself to your own heart? And that it was extremely clear?

I was pondering what I call my “fear of intimacy.” I've wished I could change it, but it hangs on like a mole or skin tag.

I was thinking specifically about how it’s almost impossible for me to look into someone’s eyes while I’m speaking to them. I can look at a person while they’re talking to me, just not when I open my mouth to speak.

So I started talking to God about that problem (again…you see, He and I have talked about this before), trying to come to grips with it. Why is that a problem for me? Yes I know my history of spending the first 40 years in a mental fog, not being able to converse well because of that…well, maybe that IS the particular part of my history that has been the conditioning causing this problem.

But still…I now can carry on fairly normal conversations (as long no one expects me to sound too intelligent).

I’m not afraid of people, mostly.

As I was pondering, I was ready to accept this about me. My thinking was, I’m over 50, so the idea of changing a set behavior seems highly unlikely.

That’s when this clear revelation struck me – hard. It was as though Jesus himself was saying something like, if you give up, then you won’t be able to look in My eyes when we’re conversing, and see My love for you.

I was in my office and I didn’t change positions, but I felt my spirit fall to the floor, face down. I was humbled on a level I’ve not experienced before.

I felt tears form as I told my Lord, but I want to be able to look into Your eyes.

I put away the idea of no longer trying to make eye contact when talking.

Since that day, there have been a couple of moments while I was speaking that I felt God trying to help me put my eyes on the face of the person before me. I felt His presence. I felt encouraged.

I haven’t been real successful yet, but I’m thankful He hasn’t given up on me, hasn't stopped peeling the layers, like an onion, one by one.

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Matthew 9:21
“She said to herself, "If I only touch His cloak, I will be healed."

If I could only convince and inspire the young woman

I wish there was a Trader Joe’s store in my area!!                                                                   (photo not by me)

As I anticipate a second surgery this year, I now understand I have only myself to blame. Had I only known then what I know now, would things be different?

I didn’t become disciplined regarding food until I learned that what I was eating was damaging my intestines.

That became my motivator.

(Side note: It took a few years, but I finally stopped craving grilled cheese sandwiches. And I still occasionally eat a thin-crust Pizza Hut pizza, right after I swallow a handful of encapsulated enzymes. I barely notice a problem.)

So why is it my fault I’m having another surgery?

My first surgery was to repair – tack up – my bladder. It had prolapsed because of weakened vaginal walls.

So, of course, I researched…

There’s a reason, as a rule, that a woman finds herself with weakened walls. Just like there’s a reason for cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, eczema…

It didn’t just happen because I’m unlucky. There are three very real reasons.

Posturing, Diet and The Pill

You can learn a lot about avoiding surgeries or even living with this problem by visiting Christine Kent’s websites:

www.wholewoman.com

http://www.firstaidforprolapse.com/

I now have a prolapsed uterus, and my second surgery is for a hysterectomy in November. But I’m hoping that by following what I’m learning, I will avoid future female repair surgeries. I will 1) keep track of my hormone levels, 2) continue to eat nutritious foods, and 3) be intentional about proper posturing.

As a child and most of my adult life, a good posture meant very little to me. This was basically how I postured my  back and hips while sitting:

And when I grew up and wanted to try and look cool, I did what we were taught: suck in your gut, tuck in your hips, puff out your chest. Both are wrong for proper care of a woman’s body. Christine Kent does a very good job of explaining why that’s anatomically bad. [“…for women, it has the effect of profoundly destabilizing our pelvic organ support system.”   –C. Kent]

Then there’s the diet. I was a very picky eater. Every day in school I had a peanut butter sandwich and barbecue chips. I ate cocoa and toast for many a breakfast. For dinners I often ate meat, potatoes and either cooked green beans or corn. LOTS of sweets and sodas.

When I grew up and got married, we could afford very little and ate a lot of casseroles, and boxed cereals for breakfast.

Then there’s The Pill. I didn’t use it for a very long time in my life, but I did use it. Now I’ve learned that The Pill robs you of the hormones needed to build up and strengthen the vaginal walls.

I state all this in the hopes that any young woman will be interested enough to do herself a favor and dig deeper into choosing a healthier lifestyle. But keep this in mind…healthy eating goes way beyond what you learn in the mainstream media. There are way too many tales that start out, “I eat healthy and I still got cancer (or had a heart attack, etc.)…”

They got cancer because they’re following our culture’s understanding of eating healthy.

I recently noticed that a credible (in my opinion) website that I trust is offering a 12-week online class for just $10 that teaches what real food is and how to eat for health.  [http://www.cheeseslave.com/2010/08/31/take-the-quiz-are-you-a-real-food-rookie/]

Take time to learn. We honor God with our bodies when we eat nutritious foods. And I believe honoring God is worship.

Matthew 10:8

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Pretty Simple Garden Bowl

Sometimes a simpler way of doing things dawns on me...

As part of the (long) process of weaning myself off processed foods, I recently began making my own dressings. But then I was becoming weary of getting a jar to make the dressing, making an oily mess, when all I really wanted to do was grab a convenient dressing bottle from the fridge.

So I gave up the step of getting the jar, and went straight to the salad bowl to start the salad preparations. I call it “Garden Bowl.”

For this Garden Bowl, I start by mincing about a one-inch section of a jalapeño pepper into the bowl, by using a garlic press.

I then add the base of the dressing:

     ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

     1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

     2 Tbsp honey

     ¾ tsp. sea salt

I step outside to cut some chives and thyme, and snip about a half dozen strands of chives into the bowl, and put in the leaves of the thyme, about the amount you see in the photo.

1 chopped tomato

1 small chopped green pepper

½ avocado

½ -3/4 c. alfalfa sprouts

and salad greens

If I had more time, I would prefer to purchase the salad greens whole and chop them myself, but life is busy and I opt for the convenient boxes of greens. I have a problem with the smell and taste of the bagged greens. I don’t know why they’re different, but they are, they taste packaged.

The base of the dressing is just a starting point. There are so many variations you can do with it. Sometimes I add orange juice to the liquids, I like the citrus flavors in the salad.

Luke 8:48
Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."




All photos taken by me.

This is Me!

Photo from www.maplevalleyfarms.net

Well, not the cows. Neither one of those are me.  J

I read this paragraph (italics text below) on someone else's blog, and it was "my story" exactly.

I just thought I'd share this one thing tonight. This is me exactly. I couldn't have said it any better.

"While recovering from undiagnosed celiac disease and living with a compromised immune system, I think it is crucial to eat the highest quality, least adulterated food possible. Buying meat raised by small farms with lots of oversight for the health of the animals translates into better food for my healing body that is easier to digest and use to rebuild my strength."   -- http://celiacsinthehouse.blogspot.com

Several years ago I found a local Amish farmer who runs a farm the way I would if I was a farmer. I purchase raw milk and grass-fed beef from him. I asked him once what he does when a cow is ill. He said they rarely get anything serious. If one does, he uses natural products for healing. Once in a great while an animal might get seriously ill, he'll then resort to antibiotics, but it's rare that it comes to that.

Just like humans - if you eat right, as a rule, you stay healthy. Once in a great while an infection may get serious enough for antibiotics, but it's rare. It should be rare.

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Malachi 4:2 (New International Version)

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.

New International Version (NIV)

Explaining Cayenne

Photo by "Grumpy Chris"


I suppose I should explain why I have 'Cayenne Pepper' in the title of my blog.

There are a number of foods that I use for healing, and healthy digestive purposes, and I like saying 'Cayenne Pepper' better than some of the other foods I use.

I could have put 'Food, Healing and Coconut Oil,' or 'Food, Healing and Turmeric'...both very powerful healing foods...

It was not long ago that I added cayenne to my almost-daily routine. I take it (eat it, swallow it, consume it) the same time as coconut oil. Coconut oil is powerful, I'm up to 1 1/2 Tbsp. a day. I had to start with one teaspoon, even that caused turmoil in my intestines. I must have had a lot of yeast and inflammation.

But back to cayenne. I put 1/4-1/2 tsp. on a large spoon, drizzle coconut oil over it until the spoon is full. I have a few swallows of orange juice handy. I take the spoonful like medicine, swallow it without breathing, then drink the juice. I don't even notice the coconut oil smell or taste. I barely notice the spicy cayenne. The first few times the spiciness seemed stronger. Evidently you get used to it.

People who like the taste of coconut have no trouble taking the oil straight. I abhor coconut foods, always have. But for healing purposes, it's become my friend. Back to cayenne again!

Why is cayenne so good for you? According to worldwidehealthcenter.net, "There are over 3000 scientific studies listed in the National Library of Medicine to support the use of cayenne in preventing and reversing many common health ailments."

The quality of the cayenne may be important. I've been purchasing mine at a local co-op in bulk form. I also purchased cayenne extract or oil when I had poison ivy and it did a great job of taking the itch out, while I waited for the poison ivy extract (rhus tox) to boost the healing.

Cayenne is good for internal and external issues.

Also from worldwidehealthcenter.net: The following are just some of the conditions which cayenne may be used to treat: stops bleeding (internally or externally), allergies, arthritis, asthma, blood circulation problems, congestive heart failure, cancer prevention, heart disease, high bood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, obesity, osteoarthritis, colds and flus, constipation, hemorrhoids, and diabetes."

I haven't had a cold since I've been using this.

One doctor I read about on the Internet says he will administer cayenne to heart attack victims, and it revives them almost immediately. I think I saved some of the document I read, let me look...


Here:


"Dr. Christopher said, 'In 35 years of practice, and working with people and teaching, I have never, on house calls, lost one heart attack patient. The reason is, whenever I go in, if they are still breathing, I pour down them a cup of cayenne tea (a teaspoon of cayenne in a cup of hot water.) Usually, within minutes, they are up and around.'

"He says, 'I received an emergency call in the middle of the night. A woman in Salt Lake City had just suffered a severe heart attack and passed out. I rushed over and fed the woman hot cayenne tea. Within minutes, she was sitting up feeling fine. The hot cayenne tea is faster-acting than tablets, capsules or cold tea. The warm tea opens up the cell structure and makes it expand and accept the cayenne that much faster. It goes directly to the heart through the arterial system and feeds it a powerful food.'

“To show the value of cayenne – what a wonderful heart food it is, this story has been repeated in a number of publications. Doctors in the East put some live heart tissue into a sterile beaker filled with distilled water and fed it nothing but cayenne pepper. During the time they were feeding the heart tissue, they would have to trim it continually, every few days because it would grow so rapidly. Having no control glands (the pituitary and pineal glands), the heart tissue just continued to grow rapidly. They kept the tissue alive for 15 years. They eventually destroyed it so they could do more research on it. This shows the high food value cayenne gives to the heart.

“In most cases a weak heart is a malnourished heart. The heart hasn’t had a decent meal for so long that it is practically starved. We give the heart a good meal. We don’t whip it with nitroglycerin or digitalis or some other type of drug to force it to beat rapidly. We try to bring more food value to the heart so that it could find a little help to keep it going.”

"Cayenne brings the blood to the surface and starts the healing. The redness comes to the skin from blood that has rushed to the surface to assist carrying off wastes."

Cayenne is my friend. Actually, if you want to know something a bit personal, but funny, the first couple days after starting this, I could feel a slight burning sensation during my "morning constitution."

Healing with food...I wish more people were interested!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you."  -Matthew 9:22

Getting Started

Photo by me

I thought I'd try my hand at blogging. I've been afraid to because I kept trying to figure out how to explain everything leading up until now. That was overwhelming to consider. So now, I'll just pick a thought, lay it out and wait till another day, another posting.

My name is Cindy. I'm 53. I live not-just-gluten-free. I started gluten free over ten years ago after a couple of really big clues came my way about what might be wrong with me. The first was going on the Atkins Diet for four weeks. Those first four weeks are completely gluten free - completely grain free. It was the first time in my life that my bowels worked the way they're supposed to. The second clue was a friend telling me about someone she knew who was diagnosed with celiac disease, and the symptoms involved with that. That conversation sent me to the Internet and I could not ignore what I learned.

I was never officially diagnosed, so I may or may not have celiac, but I definitely have a problem with gluten. I went gluten free, and a long list of symptoms cleared up. The most surprising was six months later when my mental fog just lifted away. I could go on and on how incredible that moment in time was.

I've been learning ever since. And I am now more than gluten free.

I became intrigued with using food to heal the first time I saw Gary Null on an infomercial many years ago. I've never read anything he wrote - I don't usually go for big hyped-up items. But the desire to heal with food was born that day. It just took me a while to get rolling with that desire.

I, like most people, whether they know it or not, deal with inflammation. Once I learned that, I began researching what to eat that deals with inflammation. It's a process, and things change and evolve.

Just recently I read, or scanned, the book "The Diet Cure" by Julia Ross. Yet another key to healing and living healthy. Because of that book, I began a little regimen of supplements that includes amino acids - keys to healing according to her. It was interesting that within the first day, my fatigue I've been experiencing lately went away.

Here are the supplements I noted while reading.

     pantothenic acid
     GABA
     multi-vitamin
     calcium
     B-complex
     Vitamin C with bioflavonoids
     Vitamin E
     Fish/flax oil
     Chromium
     Complete essential amino acids
     Biotin
     L-glutamine

Some of these things I already take in the products I have. The least fun product to take that I purchased from vitacost.com is called EfaGold Hemp Protein & Fiber by Nature's Way. It's organic and has a long list of very impressive supplemental power - all from one ingredient, hemp seed. But it's a non-fun powder you stir into a drink. It works to put it in a smoothie, but I just put it in a little bit of orange juice, gulp it down (get it out of the way), and then have breakfast with tea.

I love tea.

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O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.  -Psalm 30:2