GFY-N! Transitions - Week 5

Greetings from Me and My House,

For our first 4 weeks of our 7 week transition to a Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating we have added God's 4 Original Food Groups. This week we will add the 5th Step, also a provision given in the Garden, by God, as a necessity for man's life and health, pure water.

Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4

Our bodies, like our earth, are made up of about three-foruths water. It is necessary for every function of our bodies. And it is important that we have pure water that is helping to flush toxins and wastes out of our body, rather than adding more to it, in addition to keeping our bodies hydrated. Most American's don't drink enough water to keep their bodies hydrated, which is evident in many of our common diseases.

To figure your personal water requirement take your weight in pounds divided by 2 and that is how many ounces of pure water you need daily. So you see the 8 glasses per day rule only works if you weigh 128 pounds.

Don't like the taste of water? Once you taste cool pure water, you may realize it isn't water you don't like, but the chemicals you've been tasting in tap water. Try pure water. Distilled or Reverse Osmosis purified water is best.

Purified water can be purchased in individual serving bottles (Aquafina is best, not brands "enhanced with minerals" - weird what we buy these days, but try telling your grandmother that you've been paying over $4 for a cup of coffee), or distilled can be bought in gallon jugs, or you can fill and refill jugs from purified water machines in grocery stores (usually the same purifying process as Aquafina, and our own home water purifying system).

For times when no purified water is available, you can squeeze fresh lemon juice (a great detoxifier) into your water or add a couple drops of Therapeutic-grade Lemon Essential Oil (preferably in a glass glass, never to styrofoam, or even thin plastics). There are a couple other alternatives, but I'll spare you anything more detailed here.

Just begin this week to drink your personal pure water requirement each day. Yes, you may feel like you are floating away, or living in the restroom at first. That's good. Your body is flushing itself out, trying to cleanse itself. It will stabilize, and you'll feel better in the process. And your body will thank you.

"O taste a see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8
For Me & My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

GFY-N! Transitions - Week 4

Greetings from Me and My House,

In Genesis 1:29 God prescribes His provision for man to eat. "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat [food]." This is week 4 in our 7 Week, 7 Steps to a Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating. This week we will be including the 4th of God's Original 4 Food Groups.

For Step 1 we started eating a fresh, raw vegetable salad at the beginning of each lunch and supper. For Step 2 we began eating fresh, raw fruits for or before breakfast. For Step 3 we began adding fresh raw sprouted seeds to (or as) our veggie salads. For Step 4 we will add fresh, raw nuts.

Do you immeditately think of the non-nut when you hear "nuts"? Many people's favorite nut is the peanut, which is not a nut, but rather a legume, that we generally eat as a nut. For our Step 4, we want to add true nuts.

Almonds are the King of nuts. They are very high in nutritional value (the most nutrient dense of all nuts), mild tasting, and very versatile. You can even make a great tasting "milk" from them, and a super nut butter. Walnuts are good "brain food". Pecans, filberts/hazelnuts, and macadamias are excellent choices too. Cashews aren't as good of a choice nutritionally, but do make good nut butter and "milk" also.

You may have to go to the health food store to find raw nuts, as your regular grocery store most likely doesn't have them. Usually you find them already shelled. Find a store that has good fresh nuts that aren't going rancid. Stale nuts will turn you off from fresh, raw nuts.

Nuts too can be added to our salads if we choose, remember those options I gave you with our Good for You-Naturally! salad suggestions on Week 1? Or we can just eat them by the handful as snacks. We can also grind many of them into a nut butter - which is super as a dip or spread for fresh veggies.

Try to find a variety, and add a handful or more daily of fresh, raw nuts to your Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating.

Oh, and if you didn't add in those "other" seeds last week, raw sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, flax, etc., you should add them in now - either by the handful or on your salads.

"O taste a see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8
For Me & My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

GFY-N! Transitions - Week 3

Greetings from Me and My House,

Welcome to Week 3 of transitioning to a healthier - Good for You-Naturally! - Lifestyle of Eating. We began Step 1, Week 1 by starting each lunch and supper with raw vegetables/salads. In Week 2 we continued Step 1 and added Step 2, eating raw fruits in the morning, before or as breakfast. This week, we will continue Steps 1 and 2 and add Step 3.

Step 3 will keep you in the produce department of the store (or perhaps not, read on), but maybe not your regular grocery store. You may need to go to a health food store or contact a nutritional supplier, like me :-) This week we will be adding raw seeds.

Perhaps the only one you can think of is sunflower seeds. And I'm guessing that most of you don't eat them raw. Try them, they are delicious. Pepitos, pumpkin seeds, are also good and popular. Sesame seeds are another popular seed, but not one we usually just munch on by the handful. Flax seeds have become very popular, as their health benefits have been discovered. However, you must grind them before using, because if the outer husk isn't broken they will pass through you undigested. You can just throw them in your blender for a few seconds. Any of these can be thrown on you lunch or supper salads, or sunflower and pumpkin seeds can just eaten plain as snacks.

However, this isn't the primary type of raw seeds we are adding this week. The raw seeds that mainly make up Step 3 are what I call "baby vegetables", sprouted seeds.

Perhaps you are familiar with bean sprouts, those plump sprouts typically added to Chinese dishes, and not usually eaten raw. The other sprouts you may have tried are alfalfa sprouts. These are the long stringy sprouts you see on many salad bars. You can get them in most grocery stores. Beyond that you probably won't find much more variety in regular grocery stores, except perhaps broccoli sprouts, which has also become somewhat popular because of their anti-cancer benefits.

But many types of untreated, organic seeds can be grown and eaten as sprouts. (Never eat tomato or potato sprouts, or garden (treated) seed sprouts.) Other sprouts that are becoming popular commercially are red clover and radish (both usually mixed with alfalfa). Other available sprouting seeds are: cabbage, garlic chives, fenugreek, lentils, and peas, and all of the following. Buckwheat, sunflower, and red pea all grow into nice salad "lettuces". Wheat produces a sweet sprout, and one that can be baked into sprout bread as well as eaten raw, and used in other recipes. Rye and triticale are also sproutable grains. Some grains, such as barley, oats, millet, and quinoa have an outer indigestible husk that is removed before being sold as food, but without which the grain won't sprout. Sproutable barley can be purchased. Rice is not suitable for sprouting. Adzuki, garbanzo, and soy beans do well. Larger beans, such as lima, kidney, black, and navy don't do as well. Chia, flax, cress, and psyllium are all gelatinous seeds that require special treatment. Mixes, containing several types of seeds, are also popular.

You may be able to find several of these sprouts in a health food store. But more than likely you'll need to become a baby vegetable farmer. Don't worry. I call this Gardening for Wimps. No weeds, no bugs, no dirt. No expensive equipment or weather caused failures. Sprouting takes only seconds per day and your crop is ready for harvest in less than a week. You get fresh, nutrient dense, organic produce year round. And you don't even have to go outside.

Do you think you can't afford organic food? Or don't have the time or space to produce an organic garden? Just a tablespoon of so of seed will yield you a bumper crop of a pound of fresh organic vegetables every week in just 9" of counter space, (more if you stack your sprouters,) and literally takes just seconds per day. Sprouting is not just Good for You-Naturally! gardening. It is cheap, easy gardening requiring hardly any time at all.

But oh what you reap. Plants at their peak of nutrition. Enzymes, the life force in raw plants, put there for their growth and our health by God, is at its highest peak in sprout sized plants.

Each variety of sprouts has its own distinction. Some are mild, some sharp; some bitter, some sweet; some hot, just like their grown up counterparts. There will undoubtedly be some you like immediately and others you don't. Alfalfa is mild, unlike in its grown up state, which is probably why it is popular. Radish sprouts taste just like their grown counterpart. So to have cheap, fresh, organic radishes for your salads every day grow your own sprouts rather than buying radishes at the store. Experiment to see which kinds of sprouts you like.

Beginning this week, try to include sprouts daily. Just add them into your salads - or make your salad entirely of sprouts. If you use a variety, you can make a delicious Sprout Salad. Try to find a bigger variety than just Alfalfa (and Broccoli). In fact start growing your own. My ebook, Gardening for Wimps (click on Sprouter), tells you all you probably need to know. If you really want to get into sprout growing and using more than that, Steve Meyerwitz, the Sproutman, wrote the comprehensive volume on sprouting, Sprouts: The Miracle Food (click on Cookbooks).

"O taste a see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8
For Me & My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

Continuing Week 2 - Good for You-Naturally!

Greetings from Me and My House,

As you are enjoying fresh raw fruits, especially in the mornings, you may also want to include other Good for You-Naturally! fruits to your Lifestyle of Eating.

Although raw fruits are best, they aren't always convenient at every time and place. For those times, you may want to include natural dried fruits. You may need to go to a health food store to find these. You want fruits that have not been sulfered (in the drying process) nor had sugar or other additives added to them. Just plain fruit, preferable organic.

Apples, apricots, dates, and raisins are among the most popular. Pineapple is also very good, but many times is "sweetened" (sugar added). "Dried" bananas usually aren't. They are usually fried, not dried. True dried bananas are delicious though, and one of our family favorites.

You can also find blended dried fruit in strips, called fruit leather. This is not the same as "fruit" strips/"roll-ups" you find in the grocery store. Those are not whole fruit nothing added products at all, but rather fruit flavored, mostly sugar products.

Natural/pure dried fruit and fruit leathers are nothing but 100% fruit that has had some of its water content evaporated out. Many are chewy, some are crisp. Dehydrating fruits concentrates both their flavors and sweetness. The price may seem somewhat high compared to fresh fruit, but remember, you are buying a concentrated food.

Fruits (and other foods) can also be dried very easily, and less inexpensively, at home. And then you fully know the quality of your dried fruit - and can get it just the texture you prefer. You choose the fresh fruit to begin with, and you control the additives that don't go into it, and how chewy or crunchy you want it.

One fruit that generally isn't as economical to make as to buy is organic raisins. Other organic dried fruit may be the same -cheaper to buy than dry. But with a dehydrator you can make truly dried bananas. And pineapple without sugar added - delicious! A good dehydrator is a great Modern Maidservant in a Good for You-Naturally! kitchen. (See info on choosing a dehydrator.)

Our children (and we) enjoy many types of dried fruits and fruit leathers. Raisins, apples, bananas and fruit leathers are the younger children's favorites. The more intensely flavored fruits, apriocots and pineapples, even dates and figs are better enjoyed by the older children and adults in our family. Fruit leathers are especially convenient to take along with you. I always have a few in my purse and diaper bag.

"O taste a see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8
For Me & My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

GFY-N! Transitions - Week 2

Greetings from Me and My House,

Last week we began helping you transition to a healthier - Good for You-Naturally! - Lifestyle of Eating by encouraging you to begin each lunch and supper with raw vegetables/salads. [That initial article has been slightly edited, if you want to see how, go back and re-read it.] Continue building this habit daily. Don't stop now. Work on variety, so you don't get tired of them. Try different dressings too, and begin to make Good for You choices there too.

This week, continue Step 1, and begin Step 2 which is beginning the day with fresh fruits. Again, go to the store and look for the variety available to you. I know this isn't the best season for many of us to find a good variety available in good quality. Do your best. Can you find 7 different ones? Try to get beyond just apples, oranges and bananas. Is there any affordable organic produce? Some health food grocery stores have beautiful organic produce sections with great variety and much of it at reasonable prices.

Eat at least one piece of fresh fruit each day either before or as your breakfast. You can eat them plain, make a raw fruit salad of several different types of fruit, or if you have a juicer, make raw, fresh juice from them. You can start your morning with the fresh raw juice, then eat fresh whole fruit the rest of the morning if you desire.

BTW, if you have a juicer, why don't you also begin making a glass of vegetable juice daily also. It's a good mid-afternoon pick-me-up. And 1 glass of raw fresh fruit juice + 1 glass of raw fresh vegetable juice each day is the best nutritional supplement you can take.

If you are able, try to eat nothing but fruit until lunch time. You can eat as much of it as you want. Snack on it throughout the morning. God said we can eat freely of his original diet given to man. It will be great for you, unless you have a health problem that makes you unable to tolerate some fruits until your health improves. If you do have such a health problem, there is a fruit you can begin with now, avocado - maybe not as much as you want all morning long though.

God's blessings as you continue this Good for You journey to better health.

"O taste a see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8
For Me & My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

Continuing Week 1 - Good for You-Naturally!

Greetings from Me and My House,

How are you doing on Step 1 to a Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating? Have you began each Lunch and Supper with a big raw veggie salad? Have you made better choices for building those salads, like dark leafy greens instead of iceberg lettuce? Have you included a variety of veggies, not just standard lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes with ranch dressing? Good for You!

I want to encourage you to keep trying various types of raw vegetables. Look in your produce section. How many types are there that you have never tried? How many have you tried but not made a regular part of your meals? As you continue on this journey to new habits in eating, purpose to try to include at least 7 new raw vegetables that you don't normally buy and eat.

Go beyond the typical lettuce salad. I had hoped to give you plenty of ideas from my Good for You Salads recipe book this week. But the computer version has evidently been lost in some long ago harddrive crash and I didn't have time to re-compile and type them all back up. But here are just a few ideas of other type of veggie salads you can be including:

Coleslaw - with cabbage, carrots, optional green pepper, onion, and raw pecans, walnuts, or sunflower seeds.
Waldorf Salad - with lettuce, apples, celery, and raw walnuts.
Brandi Salad (named after daughter #2 - this was her favorite) - broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, celery, and onion, optional raw pecans or walnuts.
Carrot & Raisin Salad - with optional raw pecans or sunflower seeds.
Marinated Cucumbers - Vinegar or Creamy
Layered Lettuce & Pea Salad - with celery, red or green onion, optional raw pecans or walnuts.
Ashli Salad (named after daughter #4, its inventor - her favorite) - Tomato, green pepper, avocado, onion, optional mushrooms and celery.
Raw Veggie Tray - your choice. Carrots, Celery, Green Pepper, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Broccoli Stems, Turnip Strips, Kohlrabi, Cucumber Strips, Radishes, Mushrooms, .... What else can you think of?

There's 8 of our family's favorite raw veggie salads. More than a week's worth of variety with lettuce only used twice. Want more? Recipes for Life - from God's Garden by Rhonda Malkmus has a wonderful section on raw vegetable salads. The Cookbook: Health Begins in Him by Terry Dorian also has many different ones. And whenever I have time to recomplile, our Good for You Salads will be available again. Go to our Good for You Resources page and click on Cookbooks.

Did you notice all those optional raw nuts? Don't worry about them right now. We will get to them on another week. But feel free to include them if you like.

Have a great rest of this week, trying a great variety of God's raw vegetable provision. And I'll see you next week with Step 2.

O Taste and See that the Lord is Good. Ps. 34:8
For Me and My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

New Year - New You

Greetings from Me and My House,

Perhaps you are one who wants to take a faster journey. You don't want to just add something good to your eating habits right now. You want to get off the junk - NOW. You're tired of the way you feel and perhaps look, and are ready to go all the way to get the junk out of your house and out of your body.

It's not too hard to get it out of the house, just throw it out - all of it. Don't think about the money you are throwing away. It is more harmful in your body than in the trash. If it isn't yours to throw away (perhaps your dear spouse isn't ready for this journey to good health), perhaps you can relegate a certain shelf (perferably up high and out of the way) as their "junk shelf" and keep all items "off limits" to the rest of the family shut away up there.

As I mentioned in our Transistioning post, going cold turkey does give you faster benefits, and sometimes this is needed to keep you going. One of the not so pleasant initial benefits for some though is going through the physical effects of getting the junk out of the body, detoxing.

I've transfered 3 articles on detoxing from my old list over here. They can be read at:
Ditching the Junk and Detoxing - 4/28/02
Detoxing 2 - While Pregnant? - 5/3/02
Detoxing 3 - Going all the Way - 5/7/02

For Me and My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa

Good for You-Naturally! ~ Transitioning

Greetings from Me and My House,

Welcome to 2007! Did you set a goal of eating more healthily this year? For the next 7 weeks I will (Lord willing) give you 7 steps to take on this journey to a Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating.

How many times have you set this goal before, only to fall down and give up? Good for You-Naturally! is a Lifestyle of Eating not a diet. It is not something you "go on" for a while, then go back to your "normal" ways of eating. You never stay healthy or keep the weight off when you yo-yo back and forth between ways of eating. Aren't you sick and tired of being sick and tired - and overweight?

Good for You-Naturally! is a lifestyle change that will take time to become habit. It is about developing good habits of making the best choice available at the time. This is not the Garden of Eden, and we don't always have the perfect, purest choice available at all times. But here in America, we most always have some choice. Make the best available choice. And when you don't, then next time do. Work at it. Make it a habit.

Going "cold turkey" really produces the best benefits. You really notice that the change was worth it, right away. But for those of you that want to slowly wean off your old ways, I present these 7 weekly steps.

WEEK 1
This week your goal is to add more living food to your way of eating. Begin by adding a big fresh vegetable salad to your lunch and or supper every day. Eat it before the rest of your meal (or you'll be tempted to not finish it.)

Your best choices will be to use a dark green lettuce as your base, such as Romaine (not iceberg) and add a good variety of other vegetables to it, especially much cruciferous ones such as, broccoli and cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, green pepper, etc. Get as many of the vegetables as possible organic. Romaine lettuce and carrots are both pretty readily available and not overly expensive. Vary your ingredients each day/meal.


For those of you wanting to go all the way, including vegetables with the highest nutritional benefits, you will want to include at least 1 cup of raw power vegetables each day, particularly cruciferous vegetables, those known to have anti-cancer and other health benefits. These are Arugula, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Watercress, Bok Choy, Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens, and Collard Greens, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Rutabaga, Napa or Chinese Cabbage, Daikon, Horseradish, Radishes, Turnips, Kohlrabi, and Kale. Some of these I've not ever seen or tried, (and I don't even know if all of them are eaten raw) but there is enough variety there for everyone to include raw cruciferous vegetables daily. (I found out over 25 years ago that turnips and kohlrabi are delicious raw. I'd never heard of turnips eaten uncooked before that, and had never even tasted kohlrabi.) If you don't include a cup everyday, try to get at least 3 cups a week, either 1 cup every other day, or 1/2 cup per day.


In addition to cruciferous vegetables, dark green and bright orange ones generally have the most nutritional value. Avocados, though really a fruit, are excellent nutritionally also.


Is this already a part of your way of eating? You can begin adding Sprouts to your salads at each meal. Growing them is cheap and easy. Get our Gardening for Wimps guide for all the help you'll need to get started.
For Me & My House,
At Jesus' feet,
Lisa