03.20.08
Generous
Never suppress a generous thought. - Camilla Kimball
12.28.07
Remembered Quote from Hope Floats
I am not the type that remembers dialogue from movies, but this quote at the end of the movie, Hope Floats has stayed in my memory.
“Childhood is what you spend the rest of your life trying to overcome. That’s what momma always says. She says that beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will…”
-Birdee from the film Hope Floats
I sure hope I can make the middle count, and with any luck maybe the ending won’t be sad.
10.03.07
Fasting and Fast Sundays
I don’t love fasting or fast Sundays, but I believe in them. Have you ever heard of fast Sunday? Let me explain.
In my religion the first Sunday of the month is set aside to fast for 24 hours with a purpose in mind such as fasting and praying for someone who is sick or unemployed, or asking God to bless us with rain. In conjunction with the fast we are asked to make a donation for the amount we would have spent on the two skipped meals. My church uses these donations to help the poor and needy with food and clothes.
Several years ago, the leaders of my church asked us to ten times the amount of our fast offerings, and that if we would have the faith to give more abundantly, we would be blessed. Although our family was struggling to make ends meet, my husband and I decided that we should exercise our faith by paying a more generous fast offering. Our financial situation did not seem to improve; however, we were able to pay all our monthly bills even though we were donating ten times more to fast offerings.
We have continued the tradition of paying a generous fast offering because it makes us feel good, and brings us peace. Today, we don’t miss the money we pay to fast offerings because it has become a monthly habit that we do without giving it a second thought.
As I study the scriptures, I have realized that generally most miracles come about through mighty fasting and prayer. As I grow older, I find myself fasting and praying two or three times a month to increase my faith mostly in behalf of my children who are making critical lifetime decisions.
When I fast, I not only feel spiritually strenghtened, I feel better physically. I believe for optimum health that the body needs a rest from digesting at least once a month.
When I complete my fast, I appreciate the abundance of many wonderful foods and treats like:
Golden Trio of Treats from Maple Ridge Farms
Pecan Turtle and Cashews in a Green Box from Maple Ridge Farms
07.20.07
Can’t Afford a Dentist, Think Again
I had to have a root canal today. It was actually better than some root canals I have had, but it still wasn’t much fun.
When I was first married, we were poor like most young couples so I didn’t go to the dentist for about six years. I had three children and breast fed each of them for at least nine months during the six year absence from the dentist. When I finally went to the dentist, he got after me for not going to the dentist regularly because now I had a mouthful of deep cavities that would eventually lead to root canals and crowns; oh boy, how right he was. Years later, it is exactly as the dentist predicted, I now floss a mouthful of crowns that protect teeth with root canals.
The child bearing years are hard on women’s teeth because the baby takes all the nutrients it needs, thus, often leaving the mother depleted of minerals and vitamins that are needed to keep a healthy smile. I learned the hard way that you don’t save money by not going to the dentist. In actuality, you spend more, a lot more. The only way to save money is to get regular preventative dental care whether you think you can afford it or not. I told my new daughter in law that it is imperative for new and nursing mothers to have their teeth checked at least once a year.
Most dentists will take a monthly fee for service rendered. If you can’t afford to pay your dental bill in full, I suggest looking for a dentist that will allow you to pay a monthly fee, or find another solution that will enable you to go to the dentist at least once a year.
For those interested in dental promotional products, here are a few of my recommendations:
07.09.07
Six Foods to Avoid
If you haven’t noticed by my blog entries, I have taken a renewed interest in becoming fit. A couple of weeks ago, I caught the end of Oprah Winfrey who was speaking to Bob Greene about his new book the, “The Best Life Diet”
Bob Greene said when trying to lose weight you need to temporarily eliminate the following:
- High Fat Dairy Products
- Regular Pasta (use whole grain pasta which can be purchased at most grocery stores)
- White Bread (again purchase whole grain bread)
- Fried Foods
- Trans Fat Foods like Margarine and Vegetable Shortenings
- Soft Drinks
These foods can occasionally be added back into your diet in moderate portions.
07.03.07
Lactose Intolerance
My daughter is majoring in community health. In one of her health classes she studied a section on lactose intolerance, and she began to wonder if she was lactose intolerant.
Wikepedia defines lactose intolerance as:
Lactose intolerance (or hypolactasia) is the condition in which lactase, an enzyme needed for proper metabolization of lactose (a sugar that is a constituent of milk and other dairy products), is not produced in adulthood.
Lactose intolerance can sometimes be confused with milk allergy. In reality, the former is a lack of the enzyme lactase, while the latter is an aberrant immune response (usually) to milk proteins.
With lactose intolerance, the result of consuming too much lactose is excess gas production, stomach aches and often diarrhea.
The majority of humans stop producing significant amounts of lactase sometime between the ages of two and five. A relatively recent genetic change caused some populations, including many northern Europeans, to continue producing lactase into adulthood. Lactose intolerance is an autosomal recessive trait, while lactase persistence is the dominant allele. The gene is expressed and the enzyme synthesized if at least one of the two genes are able to express properly. Only when both gene expressions are affected is lactase enzyme synthesis reduced, which in turn reduces lactose digestion.-Wikipedia
When I had a stomach ache when I was a kid, my mom would tell me to go get a glass of milk. So when my daughter would tell me that she had a stomach ache, I told her to go get a glass of milk. As I think back about the use of milk as a stomach ache remedy, I know it didn’t work. I remember that my daughter’s stomach ache did not go away until morning, after a night’s rest, or probably more likely, after a night’s digestion.
As an experiment, my daughter decided to cut milk from her diet to see if it would improve her overall health, and it did. She no longer had stomach aches, or sinus and ear infections. My daughter replaced milk with yogart, and some soy milk (although there seems to be controversy as to whether soy milk is an healthy product…… See “Scientists versus the soya industry”
Since my husband and son had similar symptoms, they decided to reduce their milk intake, and increase their consumption of yogart and soy milk. They also noticed overall improved health.
06.28.07
Pedometers Show High Step Count, Low Obesity
How many steps per day are enough to keep you trim and prevent obesity? A pedometer study of an Old Order Amish community showed that their average man logged 18,000 steps per day and their average woman logged 14,000 steps per day, and they had one of the lowest rates of overweight and obesity of any community in North America.
While typical North Americans find logging 10,000 steps a day to be a challenge, requiring dedicated walking time to accomplish, the Old Order Amish achieved it with ease with their typical daily activities. In fact, the only day their average dipped as low as 10,000 steps was on Sunday, their “day of rest.” The farming community was studied in March at a moderate-activity time rather than high-activity time of year such as during harvest.
96 Amish studied wore pedometers for a week and recorded their daily steps and other physical activity. Use of the pedometers and scales did not violate Amish traditions because they were borrowed. The participants were men and women, ages 18-75, in an Old Order Amish community in Ontario, Canada. The study was published in the January, 2004 “Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,” and conducted by David R. Bassett, Jr. and associates of the University of Tennessee.
None of the men were obese, and only 2 of the women were obese, an overall rate of 4% obesity as measured as a BMI of 30 or more. This compares to 14.9% obesity rate in Canada and 30.9% in the USA.
Of note is that the obesity rates for this community do not compare to that of more sedentary Amish communities where they work in tourist shops and furniture factories. In those communities the obesity rate is similar to their non-Amish neighbors. It might be predicted that it is the high-activity farming lifestyle that keeps this Amish community lean.
The moral of this story: modern lifestyles have greatly reduced our everyday physical activity levels, yet we haven’t reduced our food intake to match.
If you would like to read the full article, see Walking.About.com
SOURCE: Bassett DR, Schneider PL, Huntington GE. “Physical activity in an Old Order Amish community.” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2004 Aug;36(8):1447. Author reply 1448.