Cleaning Up My Kitchen
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Prov. 14:12, NIV.
It all started when I began skimping on my sleep, eating on the run, and pushing myself to renovate a halfway house for prisoners. Lack of funding forced me into full-time fund raising and full-time construction. After six months of abusing my body, moving became painful. I couldn't get out of the car without Al's help. I kept thinking, All I need is a good night's rest, and I'll bounce back. But I didn't. Instead, I began taking Advil to kill the pain.
While at a board meeting at Weimar Institute, Dr. Vernon Foster noticed me trying to get up out of the chair and asked, "What's wrong?" After a quick exam, he said, "You'll have to see a doctor and have tests, Jane, but it looks like polymyalgia rheumatica."
I went back home, found a specialist, and started drug therapy. But month after month I got no better. When the dosage was increased and another drug given to prevent hemorrhaging, I became convicted that this was not the way to go, so I called Dr. Foster. He agreed, and instead of prescribing drugs, he asked me to walk three miles a day for five days a week, drink more than 2 quarts of water daily, sleep eight hours a night, rest with my eyes closed one hour in the middle of the day, and eat no dairy products or refined fats or sugars.
Do you know what that does to the "good old Adventist diet?" It gets you back to nature. Almost everything you buy has animal products or hydrogenated fat or sugar in it. I put a 30-gallon trash container in the middle of my kitchen and filled it with what I cleaned out my refrigerator and cupboards.
Within 10 days I felt better. In 30 days the change was significant. By the end of 90 days I could hardly remember I had been sick. Now I can tell within an hour if I eat things that aren't good for me.
I'm convinced that there is a way that may seem right to us, but in the end is pain, sickness, disability, and eventually death.
Just to know and not to do is not good enough, either in the area of our physical health, or in our spiritual lives. "Lord, help me to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk."
It all started when I began skimping on my sleep, eating on the run, and pushing myself to renovate a halfway house for prisoners. Lack of funding forced me into full-time fund raising and full-time construction. After six months of abusing my body, moving became painful. I couldn't get out of the car without Al's help. I kept thinking, All I need is a good night's rest, and I'll bounce back. But I didn't. Instead, I began taking Advil to kill the pain.
While at a board meeting at Weimar Institute, Dr. Vernon Foster noticed me trying to get up out of the chair and asked, "What's wrong?" After a quick exam, he said, "You'll have to see a doctor and have tests, Jane, but it looks like polymyalgia rheumatica."
I went back home, found a specialist, and started drug therapy. But month after month I got no better. When the dosage was increased and another drug given to prevent hemorrhaging, I became convicted that this was not the way to go, so I called Dr. Foster. He agreed, and instead of prescribing drugs, he asked me to walk three miles a day for five days a week, drink more than 2 quarts of water daily, sleep eight hours a night, rest with my eyes closed one hour in the middle of the day, and eat no dairy products or refined fats or sugars.
Do you know what that does to the "good old Adventist diet?" It gets you back to nature. Almost everything you buy has animal products or hydrogenated fat or sugar in it. I put a 30-gallon trash container in the middle of my kitchen and filled it with what I cleaned out my refrigerator and cupboards.
Within 10 days I felt better. In 30 days the change was significant. By the end of 90 days I could hardly remember I had been sick. Now I can tell within an hour if I eat things that aren't good for me.
I'm convinced that there is a way that may seem right to us, but in the end is pain, sickness, disability, and eventually death.
Just to know and not to do is not good enough, either in the area of our physical health, or in our spiritual lives. "Lord, help me to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk."
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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