A Tale of Two Ostriches

Sunday morning during fellowship time I poured myself a cup of coffee; bit of cream, no sugar, then I stood at the end of the counter trying to decide who I was going to chit chat with this week.  I try to mix it up so I'm not all cliquey.

As I stood there savoring my first sips of coffee, an older gentleman with a cane came by and picked up a cookie.  As he was looking over all of the other unhealthy options being offered (hehehe) I half-jokingly said "don't eat too many of those!"

*Now, for a bit of back story, this man knows all about Jeff's cancer diagnosis and how we healed it with God and diet.

Well, he proceeded to tell me that I am a control freak and he didn't know how my husband put up with it!  My reply was that, yes, I was in control to a great extent of everything my husband puts into his mouth.  I also told him that it was because I love him and want us to be healthy and strong.

This man went on to state that it didn't matter what you ate in your life, that God has numbered your days and has appointed the time that you will pass on.

I couldn't really argue with that last point, but I did reply that cancer had scared us into eating super healthy!

His reply:  (at this point I decided to let him string enough rope out to make a noose)  "I've had cancer three times! And a heart issue too!  And I'm still here!  (he is 72)  And all that is wrong with me is a bum knee!"

Me:  At this point I'm just hoping that somewhere in his subconscious self lights were beginning to flicker on when he said those things. Just hoping.  So I just said:  "Well then, have a few more cookies, you deserve them!"

Next story

Walking through the grocery store I meet a man I used to work with.  He is older than I and he looks terrible.  He never did look all that healthy before, but now?  Downright awful.  He can't hardly walk due to an injury and his face was all red and puffy.

I decided to share with him our story about changing our diet to mostly plant based.

His reply?  I eat plant based.  All the meat I eat, eats plants.  Well, you can't argue with that logic, can ya?  So I took that opportunity to point out the package of red hot dogs in his cart.  Then Jeff may have said I was a real food critic now.  Then I said I would pray for him.

Last post I think I shared a quote:  "Are we living too short and dying too long?"

These men are set in their ways and unwilling to change.  At this point.  There is always hope.
Jeff is proof of that.

They would rather suffer through years of cancer, heart disease, pain and suffering than to accept the responsibility that great health is within reach.

It's the easiest solution to good health.  It's the hardest solution to good health.

If God has appointed me a certain amount of years, wouldn't I want to live the bulk of them in good health?  YES!!

I share this story in hopes that someone is encouraged.

Drink more tea!

Jeff and I used to be daily coffee drinkers.  We didn't drink a lot of coffee each day.  No more than two large mugs full.......wait!  That is a lot!  He added 3 sugars to his and I usually added 1 sugar to mine.  He liked his very light and I just put a smidge of milk in mine.

On day one of our journey to better health we quit drinking coffee.  We waited about three weeks before we had another cup.  By then the habit was broken.  And it is a habit, an addiction for most folks.  If you can't imagine a day without it then you have a problem.  The first step to overcoming any problem is first admitting that you have one.  Evidently we did and now we don't.

I gave away all of the Maxwell House coffee I had stored in my pantry (about 6 containers) and I also gave away the Keurig coffee machine.

We began to drink tea.  Red (rooibos) for Jeff, and green tea for me. In my research on what tea would be best for us to drink, red tea kept coming up as being the best for Jeff in his situation (cancer diagnosis)  It is much higher in antioxidants than green tea.  This is what we were after.   These are the health benefits we were discovering of drinking red tea:  it is caffeine free.  it is anti inflammatory and anti oxidant, supposedly 50% more than green tea.  It contains the pigment quercetin which has been shown to suppress malignant tumor growth. It is good for your immune system.  I stuck with the green tea because I did not have a diagnosis and it is less costly than the red.

We now  drink tea every morning.  We both take it the same way:  1/2 teaspoon of raw honey, and a smidge of  organic half n half.  In the beginning we drank tea about three times a day.  Now we are usually down to once a day.

Do we drink coffee now?  yes we do!

We buy organic coffee and we use a french press to brew it.  We drink coffee as a treat a couple of times a week--always in the afternoon.  I prepare mine with 1/2 teaspoon of raw honey and a smidge of organic half n half.  Jeff likes his lighter so he adds organic unsweetened coconut milk to his.

Coffee also has antioxidants, but it is high in caffeine and could be unhealthy depending on what you add to it.  We are also now concerned about drinking non organic coffee.

We are both really happy with our decision to break the addiction.  It feels good and right to be in control of what we put into our bodies daily.  Like everything else it is now a want and not a need.

Cook your Oats!

Before we began this plant based way of eating, our breakfasts were typical of most Americans.  I say Americans because that is all I know.  I have no clue what people eat for breakfast anywhere else in the world.

My husband ate 4 eggs and a few slices of bacon every other morning.  On the alternating mornings he ate granola (homemade) with yogurt (store bought sugar laden)

I ate whatever I was drawn to.  I always thought I was eating healthy.  I would sometimes have yogurt (homemade using raw milk, unsweetened) and granola (homemade)
Or I would have a bagel with peanut butter and a banana. Bread was usually always a part of my breakfast.  I would occasionally  eat eggs.

Sometimes, but rarely we would buy a box of cereal.  Whole milk for the husband, and nut milk for me.

Breakfast is now our opportunity to get a dosing of the super nutrition available to us in oats.  We eat oatmeal almost every morning.  If we don't eat oatmeal it's because we are doing a juice fast--that is another topic in the future.

When we have made oatmeal in the past we have just put water in it and shoved it into the microwave for two minutes.  At some point I learned to make a much yummier and satisfying bowl of oatmeal.  This is how I do it:

I use 1 cup of water -you may use milk or nut milk, or a combination as long as it is at least 1 cup.
 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
 1 Tablespoon chia seeds--I alternated every other day with ground flaxseed

**if you like raisins, add a 1/4 cup to the saucepan with the rest of the ingredients
 If we want to have banana or berries, we usually add them to our bowl after the cooking is done.

Place in a saucepan on medium heat and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 4 minutes.  When done simmering, remove from the heat and put the lid on.  Now wait 10 minutes at least.  The oats will continue to soften and puff up as will the chia seeds.

Transfer your oatmeal to a bowl.  At this point I add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil to the top of the oatmeal.  This is optional.  It adds a little bit of good fat to your meal and helps the cinnamon get yummy creamy!  I don't always do it for myself, but I do it on my husbands because some of his supplements require a fat to be eaten.

Sprinkle cinnamon over the top.  As much or as little as you like.  No cinnamon/sugar--just cinnamon! The bowl on the far right above has the fat--see how the cinnamon melts into it?

Drizzle maple syrup over the top.  I usually measure so I make sure it is no more than 1 teaspoon.

Making the oatmeal this way has made it into a much more satisfying breakfast.  We use mostly organic products and they are all readily available at the grocery or big box stores.  The best place to buy organic old fashioned oats is at a health food store (such as whole foods) that sells in bulk bins.  The organic chia and organic maple syrup I buy at Samsclub.

Breakfast is a very good place to start when you are trying to change habits.  I would suggest starting there and making eating a healthy, low sugar, high fiber breakfast a regular habit.

Just eat what is good for you!

Something I didn't know about before this food journey was that foods fall into different levels of ph.  They are either alkaline forming or acid forming in your body.  This is what I read.  As a gardener I knew that different plants like different soil ph's.  I knew that some foods were acidic.  I had never seen a chart like this one before.

*if this chart is hard to read just google alkaline foods and tons will show up!

This chart helped us a lot.

I also read some things that said blah, blah, blah, you can't change your body's ph, just eat what you want.  Please do not take me as any kind of authority on scientific anything.  I just know common sense.  And since we were in a scary place of not making any excuses for our bad habits, we were willing to heed the advice of this chart.

The foods on the alkaline level of the chart, that are above neutral ph, are so obviously the most healthy things to eat.  The foods that are below neutral ph are less healthy for you.  This is just common sense, right?

Here is what we read:

Eating too much from the acid forming side of the ph scale will cause your body to be out of balance.  It creates an environment of inflammation.  Inflammation in our bodies is responsible for cancers and autoimmune disorders.

Trying to keep your food choices to the alkaline end of the chart and consume the acid forming more sparingly will help keep your bodies flora in balance and keep the inflammation down.  This will help your body fight disease.  Yes!!!

We try to eat alkaline forming foods in large amounts, neutral foods in moderate amounts, and acid forming foods in sparse amounts.  It makes sense, right?  It did to us!!!

Even if you threw out the words alkaline and acid and all of the numbers on the chart, it still makes total sense!  You will only improve your health by eating foods that are at the top of the chart.

So buy lots of leafy greens and start eating healthy!