Armed With Green Tea Bags

It’s 5 in the am and I can’t sleep…due to my stomach growling. That has been occurring more and more lately and being the educated individual that I am, I determined that it was because I was hungry. I’ve had more than one person tell me I’m looking skinny and this is when I have to stop and evaluate things. There have been some issues with my diet such as being HUNGRY and when I say diet, I don’t mean an “I-wanna-lose-weight-diet” I mean what I eat in general diet. We don’t use the d-word around here much—too stressful and has too many implications to body image. How frustrating that some believe they’ll never measure up, no matter how many times others tell them they’re beautiful. I wonder if God gets sick of tryin’ to convince some that He loves them just the way they are. Flab, flaws, and all. I haven’t written on the topic of my health in awhile and possibly for great reason! All those pesky CFS symptoms went away when I got pregnant and it was wonderful! The typical, everyday pregnancy fatigue was virtually nothing compared to what I had experienced for the past couple years! I had minimal pain and no dizziness…aahhhhh…Here lately, it’s been dizziness, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, and pains…including those weird crawling sensations where I’d bet real money that there was a spider or something equally devastating on my leg.
I saw a rogue specialist, an ex-doctor who now specializes in actually treating individuals at low, low prices, hehehe, and he believes it to be a candida infection (which I’ve looked at before, but gave up on the diet! Silly d-word…ahem, nutrition plan.) a B-12 deficiency, and a buildup of toxins. I’m toxic. Why do I have Britney Spears in my head? Poor girl…I have felt like shaving my head before too, and I guarantee you I would’ve done it had there been cameras following me around 24/7. Aaaaaand back to topic…
I described my symptoms, dizziness, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle spasms, pins and needles, memory loss, and he said it was a textbook b12 deficiency. Textbook? ME? Really? Another aaaaahhhhh…I’ve been convinced that I was deficient of some vitamin for a while now, but you can only take so many supplements. I was up to 40 a day at one point, that would be my all-time best, er…worst? All-time high anyway. I don’t wish to go back there as I felt as though that was all I got accomplished and with a small child, that luxury is no longer affordable.
The “prescription” was to go on the yeast-free nutrition plan (I remembered! Take that, d-word!) take a high potency B-12 vitamin, get on a 66 billion string, strand, strang, whatever of probiotics, and drink green tea like it’s a serious business. This is what I’ll be doing for the next few weeks. I hope to report back and not feel as though I’ve been hit by a Mack truck after typing.

Cut It Out

One thought comes to mind as I scan Facebook: Keep your nose in the Word and out of other people’s business. Then I thought, wait, your business IS everyone else’s business. It’s 2012—“back in the day” people didn’t constantly FB, tweet, shout it from the rooftops and streets what they were doing with a megaphone. Essentially, that is what this generation does. So, if you don’t want people in YOUR business, quit puttin’ it out there for everyone to comment on. Quit being offended if someone makes a remark you are unhappy with, as that is their right, and possibly their duty, as you may be offended if no one comments. Stop reading into what people are “saying” as they are NOT saying it…they are typing it, on a machine, which means there is no tone for you to hear or read. The misunderstandings and miscommunications involved in “communicating” via the computer are endless. If they didn’t mean it that way, then it’s fixable. If they did mean it that way, then it’s fixable. FB friends are just that many times, FB friends. I don’t look to the internet for my personal validation and neither should any Christian believer. If these “relationships” are causing you to become ill-tempered and ugly, you know what the Word says? Cut ‘em out. I get the feeling some of you might rather lose that proverbial hand or eye as opposed to your ability to post statuses. Mark 9:43-48

I Hate “Busy”

So, here ya go God! Here’s 3 minutes! That’s essentially what I’m saying to Him and hoping that He’ll bless my writing this am! Arg! How undeniably insulting! Well, it’s been a battle…imagine that one, will ya? Since I decided to give God the first of my mornings, I have never been so tired in my life!! And this coming from someone diagnosed with CFS a few years back! (Actually, in all honesty, I just found out they never put that diagnosis in my chart. At first, I was extremely frustrated with our lacking health care system, but then I thought, “Hey, maybe this is God. Maybe I don’t need a label on all this junk. After all, the label hasn’t helped with a cure thus far.” So, come to find out, it was referenced as a possibility I believe. Even better, flailing health care or not, I chose to look at it as though it was in God’s plan.) The twists and turns of my journey are not to be ignored and undermined. Ha! This morning I find myself searching out ways to improve my health again…this time turning to a more Ayurvedic approach, based on my “dosha” or body type. Oil pulling, warm lemon water, green drinks are just a few of the new adaptations to my day. Having health issues requires a constant mind-alignment, mind/body/soul must be lined up with what God’s Word says and if we don’t take the time to do that, then we have no excuses as to why we feel the way we do. A friend of mine is a very unhappy, stressed, busy, busy, busy person. She told me she hates the summer and when I asked why, she stated she’s too busy and all she eats is junk food because she’s so busy. (let me preface this by saying, I truly, without a shadow of a doubt would get rid of the word “busy” from everyone on this planet’s vocabulary if I could. We make time for what’s important to us. If our priorities don’t line up with what we say they are, guess what: they’re not our priorities at all.) We live in a day where family, friends, and relationships take a back seat to all the other things we’re doing. Meanwhile, the WHOLE while, saying, “Family is very important to me” and “I love hanging out with my friends!” To schedule a lunch with someone you went to school with ranks right up there with completing a marathon! It’s so hard! Or is it? We breathe, we center ourselves, we determine what we can and can’t live without…for me, it is less TV and internet time…and go from there. Make choices, don’t let them make themselves, while you stand there frazzled feeling out of control of your life. My friend doesn’t have to eat greasy, sodium-filled, “edible, food-like substances.” (Thanks Michael Pollan.) I can wake up earlier to spend time with the Creator of the universe and I look at it like a chore?? My point is: We can change, but change doesn’t come about without conscious thought.

Never the Same

So, I have decided to wake up and give God the first of my day. I have decided this before, but how many of you know the “doing” is a bit more difficult than the “saying?”
I’ve been learning about the Holy Spirit. I wasn’t taught much about it growing up and since I experienced Him in a revival in a tiny little church in a tiny little town about 3 years ago, I’m not willing to just let it slip away, untapped. There’s more and I’m gonna seek after it. God’s got a plan and I’m finally in a place where I believe God over what anyone or anything else tells me! How cool!!!
I once thought that I could once and for all shake off what others thought of me and simply say, “This is me. Accept it or not.” Oh, if only! How easy that would be! And for some, I’m sure it is that way. God, I think, has chosen to hold my hand every day re: this concern. I do think of what others will think and wonder how they will react each time I write or post something. I don’t like it, but I do. There’s always those couple of people that are in the back of my mind and I wonder just exactly how weird they’ll think I am. However, in the past 3 years, no one, not one of them, has come up to me and said, “Man, you are so crazy out of your mind about this Jesus character!” and for this reason, I have a new goal. I want someone to say just that! I want someone to walk up to me and shake their head in amazement. I want them to look at me with that curiosity that is usually reserved just for the feline population. I need to live my life to that extent! All the people in my life are there for a reason, including the old friends, the ex-boyfriends, the once-believers, etc. God’s gonna use me and why on this earth would I be ashamed of that? Why would I ever try to hide that? Because of a mocker or two? If I’m not strong enough in my faith to handle that, then I might as well punch my card and head home! I’m gonna continue to seek after God’s face and get to know this Creator of this universe because He allows me to. I don’t know about you, but the life you live with Him in it is better than any vice I’ve ever tried! When the Spirit and that love come over you, you’ll never be the same. Your life will never be the same. You don’t find guarantees like that very often!