The subject of balancing one’s weight can be compared to balancing a checkbook.

If we continue to write checks drawing from our lifespan savings fund without replenishing that fund, eventually that fund will be depleted and we shall suffer poverty of health.

How do we write checks against our allotted health/life savings fund with regard to weight and obesity? Primarily in the way that we eat. In part one of this two part subject on weight loss we saw how very important what we eat it is to gaining or losing weight.

AVERAGE AMERICAN DIET

Dr. Richard Schultze explains: “The average American has a negative self image, and gets reoccurring bouts of depression and anxiety. The Average American is physically, emotionally and spiritually sick,… They eat a low nutrition high fat and sugar food program. 

“They consume 300 soft drinks a year, 170 pounds of white refined sugar, 
400 candy bars, 500 doughnuts, and will eat over 12 entire 3,000 pound cows, 6 whole pigs, 3,000 chickens and other birds and another 3,000 assorted fish and sea creatures and over 30,000 quarts of

milk and pass all of this through their digestive system and bloodstream.”

“They will have an average of 2-4 bowel movements a week coming up 70,000 bowel movements short in their life time, definitely having diverticulosis and digestive/elimination problems.

They will get very little exercise if any, be 25 pounds or more overweight, have hypercholestero-lemia with a average level of 200 and have high blood pressure. They take over 30,000 aspirin and assorted other pain killers in their lifetime along with over 20,000 over the counter and prescription drugs and over 2,000 gallons of alcohol.[1]

According to a MSNBC article written by Karen Collins R.D. “A new report on American eating habits reveals that almost a quarter of the calories we consume come from nutrient-poor selections – better known as “junk food.”

                                                  Eden Cleanse, Developed  By Phase 3 Ministries

The article, based on information obtained from a survey of about 4,700  people states further, “According to the responses, soft drinks are the number one source of calories. They accounted for 7.1 percent of the calories these people consumed in 1999–2000.

“Altogether, the categories of soft drinks, sweets and desserts, and alcoholic beverages contributed 23.8 percent of the calories that these survey respondents consumed. Salty snacks and fruit-flavored drinks added another five percent of calories. Since these foods are relatively concentrated in calories, you don’t have to eat a lot of them to increase your daily calorie total.

 “Another study looking only at youths aged 8 to 18 reports similar findings. Candy, table sugar, sweetened drinks, baked and dairy desserts, salty snacks, fatty foods like butter and gravy, along with some other nutrient-poor foods made up more than 30 percent of the calories these youths consumed.

In fact, desserts and table sweeteners alone comprised almost 25 percent of the total calories. Furthermore, those who ate the most junk food tended to eat the least amount of nutrient-dense, healthful foods. They took in less vitamins A, B-6 and folate, as well as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc.”[2]

Back to the Basics

In losing weight we must get back to the basics.

1)      Eliminate the bad foods and replace them with healthy, and tasty substitutes. There are tasty natural substitutes for many, many favorite foods like pizza.[3]

2)      Eat a lot less at meal sittings. Most Americans are given to the “supersize” and the “big gulp” mentality and are consuming some 400 extra calories per day.

3)      Exercise daily: “ One of the most effective and simple exercises is walking. You should aim to burn between 100-300 calories per day through daily exercise. This can be done by a 30-40 minute brisk walk daily. Or you could ride a bike, garden etc. By walking just 40 minutes a day, and cutting your daily calories by 500 per day(by avoiding animal fats) in five days you will lose 5,600 calories-that’s 1.6 pounds.”[4]

4)      Americans are top at sitting  perfectly still and not exercising. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention only 44% of Americans engage in a mild exercise like walking. Next in line is gardening at 29%, 9% jog and 7% practice aerobics.

5)      Reframe from grazing: To graze is to eat whenever we want disregarding the health laws of the body. No food should be eaten between meals. The digestive system needs rest. When the system is given food between meals the digestive process of the system has not finished, and any partially digested food is moved along where, being undigested, it ferments or rots and becomes toxic to the system.

6)       At least five hours should elapse between meals.

7)      It is unwise to eat and drink at the same time. The food is designed to remain in the stomach for about 30 minutes. When fluid is taken with your food the digestive juices are to a great extent diluted and the complete digestion of the food is not accomplished. Again undigested food is the result. This undigested food can become toxic and equal excess weight as we continue by lifestyle, and habit, to cause the body to become more and more toxic.

8)      Eat slower: Not chewing food properly, and eating too fast will also lead to weight gain. In this situation the food is not digested properly, because digestion begins in the mouth.

  SAGE ADVISE

“One of the strongest temptations that man has to meet is upon the point of appetite”, wrote health educator Ellen White. “Between the mind and the body there is a mysterious and wonderful relation. They react upon each other. To keep the body in a healthy condition to develop its strength, that every part of the living machinery may act harmoniously, should be the first study of our life. To neglect the body is to neglect the mind. It cannot be to the glory of God for His children to have sickly bodies or dwarfed minds. To indulge the taste at the expense of health is a wicked abuse of the senses. Those who engage in any species of intemperance, either in eating or drinking, waste their physical energies and weaken moral power. They will feel the retribution which follows the transgression of physical law.”

I think the truth of the above statement is plain to all. If you are battling against weight, whether you are a Christian or not I would like to leave you with the following words of encouragement from the apostle, Paul, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:23

God Bless

K.M. Henry

   DONNA’S CORNER

MENOPAUSE…THE END OF 

        MENSTRATION

When our bodies go into menopause the ovaries begin to cut back on the production of estrogen, which stimulates an increase of  the hormone called “the follicular stimulating hormone”, This hormone orders the ovaries to start preparing the egg cell.  Its job is to try to get our ovaries to start producing eggs again.  The production of the follicular stimulating hormone is normally inhibited because the body produces high enough levels of estrogen. 

When the level of this hormone is increased in the body, it can disturb the hypothalamus gland, which controls normal body temperature, sleep patterns, stamina levels and controls the autonomic nervous system, which regulates breathing, heartbeat, digestion, blood pressure (etc).  During this gradual adjustment to not producing eggs, these basic functions of the body are disturbed.  Few women go through this change without some symptoms.

Various drugs are prescribed for menopausal symptoms, and all of them have various unwanted side effects.  Try and avoid all drugs for this natural condition in your body.

Only in modern societies has menopause been considered a negative thing.  In most other societies, women have allowed this change as yet another appropriate time in their lives.

Many women, wishing to avoid the temporary discomfort of the change, take hormones to continue their periods and delay menopause, although when we stop taking the estrogen the symptoms reappear, proving that we cannot delay menopause forever.

 Estrogen pills carry some pretty frightening side –effects.  The labeling on these  drug packages list – an increased risk of cancer in the uterus, which increases as  the time increases that a woman takes the estrogen.  Cancer of the breast have  also been linked to estrogens.  Other side effects are edema, nausea, dizziness, weight gain, bleeding, vomiting, cramps, nervous tensions, excess cervical secretions.  Estrogen does not help simple nervousness caused by menopause, and does not keep the skin soft or help a woman feel young.

Menopause signals that childbearing years are closed, and an entering into a new phase of productivity and experience have begun.  After women go through this stage, it is said that they have experienced another important rite of passage in womanhood.  Unfortunately along with this comes a tremendous amount of nervous tension, hot flashes, and lack of sleep etc.

Natural  methods can help you cope with this problem.  There are herbs to equalize hormones and estrogen.  These herbs are an aide to assist the function of developing the hormone and estrogen balance.

:  The Herbal combination of black cohosh, sarsaparillas, gingseng, licorice root, blessed thistle herb, false unicorn root, and squaw vine.  These are natural herb foods, and since they are natural, the body can accept, assimilate and use those materials that are needed to produce estrogens and other hormones naturally.

Because herbs are just food, they do not  have the “side effects” and “after effects”  so evident in man-made and synthetic  drugs.

Many older woman claim they have found relief from hot flashes and other menopause problems after using the above herbal formula.

During menopause our bodies are doing what they are supposed to be doing, just as they did at puberty, childbearing and lactation.  We can enjoy this, and appreciate the healthy response of our physical mechanism.

God Bless

Donna G. Henry