Well, I was thinking I would have a little more time this week, but I think with graduation coming up soon, I'm not going to have much free time until that is done. That is true every year, but it still kicks me in the butt every year.
At the market last week, one of our friends that we haven't seen for a while came by our booth. When I asked her how she was doing, she admitted that her health challenges were getting the best of her. When I asked her how her diet was doing, she said it was not going well, and she was sure that if she could eat better, her health problems would improve. As we talked about why she doesn't eat better, she recognized that addiction to the SAD (standard American diet) was seriously holding her back.
I am constantly amazed at how great a part addiction plays in holding us back from fulfilling our potential here on earth. We see in every area of life. There is more to this than we like to admit.
I had been thinking a lot about addiction as I wrote last week, and Sunday at Church, one of the speakers was talking about people in the Bible who had trials they successfully got through including Abraham with Isaac, Moses in leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, etc. Then he mentioned Jonah, and he asked, "How many of us have whales in our life that are holding onto us until we are ready to fulfill our life's mission?" I had thought about Jonah before and how many corollaries there were to my own life, but that question had me thinking about it again. I cut and pasted the chapters out of the Old Testament, and then I made a chart showing the comparisons. I couldn't believe how much these chapters related to addiction.
I assume everyone has access to an Old Testament, so I won't reprint those scriptures here, but I'll be glad to send them to anyone who does need them if you e-mail me and ask for them. It would definately help you to have them close at hand as you think of these comparisons so that you know where I came up with this.
Here are the points I extracted from Jonah:
1. Jonah was asked to serve a mission.
2. He ignores the request (tries to hide).
3. The Lord allows the tempest to upset his journey.
4. Others suffer also when Jonah is being chastened.
5. The Lord lets others know the source of their problems was Jonah.
6. Jonah offers to be the martyr; it is easier to be a martyr than to do what he’s supposed to do.
7. Jonah helped others turn to the Lord as they recognize the Lord's power through the seriousness of Jonah’s consequence.
8. The Lord prepared a fish to hold Jonah until he repented. Note that time was a factor; if Jonah waited too long, would the fish's digestive juices kick in?
9. He recognizes that he would not be in this situation if he had listened and obeyed in the first place; recognizes that his relationship with the Lord is threatened.
10. He remembered covenants he has made.
11. “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”
12. He recognized that he had forfeited a portion that he would never get back, but he was willing to turn to God to get what he could.
13. Commits to turn to God no matter how painful the envisioned consequences are.
14. The Lord delivers Jonah from the belly of the fish.
15. The Lord repeats His request to have Jonah serve his mission.
16. His journey to Ninevah was not an easy one even though he was doing what he was supposed to do.
17. Jonah gives the Lord’s message; people listen and are preserved.
18. Jonah is angry because the people received this blessing.
19. The Lord shows Jonah that the people of Ninevah were at least as deserving as the gourd plant.
I know that we each have a great work to do on this earth. There are many others depending on us as well. We can allow our addictions to keep us from being productive, or we can overcome them. I believe that the Lord is an important part in overcoming addiction as He would never leave us without the tools we need to do the things He wants us to do.
One of the reasons the 12 step program (A.A. for example) is successful is because it teaches the addict that he must recognize there is a power greater than himself who will help him if he will be humble enough to ask. Our pride is what keeps us from asking for that help.
I'm praying for that help on my journey, and I pray that we as a human race can recognize these addictions for what they are. Our lives are too short to waste them in this way.
A couple of weeks ago, there was someone on a talk show who said scientists have learned that high fat, high sugar foods are addictive because they elicit a positive emotional response (due to release of dopamine).
Here's the definition according to wikipedia.com: "An addiction is a persistent behavioral pattern marked by physical and/or psychological dependency that causes significant disruption and negatively impacts the quality of life of an organism."
Do foods in the SAD diet fit that criteria? In my opinion, absolutely, at least in my life they have. Unfortunately, just knowing this is not going to change anything. We will take the knowledge unused to our grave if we do not make the changes that must be made. We must have the courage as Jonah did to make the break, and do what we perceive to be incredibly difficult. It may even seem impossible, but of course, intellectually we know it is not.
This week we're excited to have so many wonderful organic fresh fruits and vegetables to eat each day. Spring is such a wonderful time of year!
Breakfast: cucumber juice, green drink (cucumber, celery, apple, lemon, greens), still some grapefruit/orange juice, green smoothies (rejuvelac, frozen bananas, greens).
2nd breakfast: fruit
We try to eat fruit each day until we feel the need for something more substantial. Sometimes we have a whole day of just eating fruit. Other days (and Hippocrates Health Institute recommends this be a once a week habit) we only drink juices and coconut water for the whole day. (Here's a fun thought: for the juice day, they recommend one also abstains from talking. It is amazing how that changes the dynamic in your day.)
Our main meal of the day is around 2:00. This is usually a large salad or some other vegetable based main dish. Here's what I'm thinking for this week:
Chili con crema (We mix marinara with some mushrooms, corn, chopped tomatoes, and sweet pepper along with organic chili powder. Then we top it with cashew cheese sour cream (We call it crema.))
Hopefully there will be some leftovers as we love it tossed with some shredded zucchini for another meal. We call it chili mac.
Save some of the marinara as a base for some Leaning Towers. We put a little marinara on the plate. We have some nice spinach or basil leaves as the base. Then we thinly slice some rounds of zucchini. Put a dab of nut-based cheese on top of the zucchini slices (queso verde, crema, etc.). Then put some nice slices of tomato on top of that. Olives are a nice addition, and then a little more marinara. It is really simple meal, but very satisfying. If you've got some dehydrated alfredo around, it makes a nice parmesan if you'd like to sprinkle that on top. yum yum
While broccoli is still in season, we're going to have a little broccoli cheese soup. We either use marinated broccoli or regular broccoli (depending on how spicy you like it) mixed with cashew cheese cheddar. Nice with some Alicia crackers.
Collard wraps are great as we still have a ton of collards. They are still tender and delicious and easy to roll into wraps or burritos. This week, I think we'll spread some queso dulce on them (this is a cashew cream cheese mixed with raisins). Then we'll top it with shredded carrot. Roll. Couldn't be easier. Some of us like to dip this in mock peanut sauce (honey almond butter diluted with water, mixed with some lemon juice, ginger, nama shoyu, and a dash of cayenne or jalopeno pepper), but some of us like them without any dipping sauce.
With all those collards, maybe some burritos would be nice too. We'll just spread some unfried no beans on the collard leaf and roll it with some avocado, chopped tomato, and some of those wonderful hotshotz sweet onions shreds. We'll probably have some tomato salsa for those who want to dip them in something.
Well, that's 6 meals, and I'm sure we'll want to have a huge i Viva La Verde salad ! at least once this week (greens, shredded carrot, minced celery, cilantro, sunnies, dulse, raisins; ranch dressing).
Desserts this week (all plant based, no dairy or animal protein): rawky road, key lime pies, chocolate macaroons, apple crisp.
Our night meal if we have one is usually something light: apple slices and/or celery sticks with honey almond butter; carrot sticks and/or celery sticks and/or cucumber spears with ranch dressing or hummus; cucumbers with olive tapenade or sprouted garbanzo bean hummus; bowl of Hawaiian granola with almond mylk, a nice mylk shake (non-dairy of course!), or just some nice fruit eaten out of hand.
We had a delicious strawberry mylk shake with the last of the organic Florida strawberries last week: almond mylk and coconut ice cream blended with strawberries and a little rejuvelac to get it moving along with a quart of frozen bananas. Life if good!
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