Diet - Importance of Eating Healthy

Fam,

Years ago, I began my journey to improve my diet. I learned way back college, probably my senior year after returning from my internship at Eli Lilly, that I had a different diet while living on my own compared to living in the house of my parents. I even remember having a small argument with my Dad when I asked my mother to bake my chicken instead of frying it. My Dad snapped back in saying that I grew up on fried chicken and I should be grateful that my mother was cooking. I defended in saying that although fried chicken is great, I am being more conscious of my health and so should he unless he wanted to risk obtaining a chronic disease like my others in other family. And, I added that I've always been grateful for mom's cooking. She just happened to notice my preference and gave me a choice.

After graduation, I worked for Medtronic, a company that produces pacemakers, and I learned a lot more about the heart. I learned how greatly a diet and exercise can impact the heart. I learned about the vast difference of patients who received pacemakers due to either an extreme heart illness within their genes or an extreme lack of care for a healthy lifestyle. The latter reminded me of my father who I admonished while living with him. Shortly after living on my own, I found out that my Dad contracted diabetes. Well, such moments I wish I wasn't right.

After marriage, I made another grand shift in my diet. I had went for a long morning run and returned home smelling awful. Curiously, I sat in my smell and wondered what it smelled like. I reflected on what I ate over last night and dinner. Quickly I remembered and concluded that I was smelling like the bacon I ate. I was sweating bacon grease, ugh. That moment was nasty enough to have me stop eating bacon like cold turkey. My wife who enjoys eating bacon was disturbed, but she kept eating bacon.

After moving to DC, my wife and I had another major upgrade to our diet. By now she had a diet that was simiilar to mine since we didn't want to cook different meals every night. Every now and then, she'll eat what she wants when she's at a brunch or lunch. Yet, over a few years we have noticed that my wife had some aches during certain times when she ate specific foods. However, we couldn't pinpoint the exact foods or simply understand if it related to the timing of meals. So she took a food sensitivity exam. The results came back clearly after a detox program that she went through. This was probably the most drastic and sudden change to our diets.

Here is our diet below. We pray that this gives awareness and insight into your own diet.

Mine:

• rarely eat beef (usually Danelle will get this during her lunch at work like a burger)
• no pork (but Danelle will eat during her own time like her love for bacon)
• rarely eat cereal unless its Danelle's GF cereal or steel cut oats
• binge on sweets every once in a while (like I'll eat a whole box of honey buns in two hours out of a month)

Danelle's:

• Gluten-Free (no wheat)
• Careful of yeast (which is why Danelle rarely drinks wine now)
• Dairy-Free (and replaced milk with almond, coconut, vanilla milk)
• Low sugar and natural sugars (less than 12 grams on like jar of spaghetti)

Together, we eat lots of chicken, fish, ground turkey (in place of beef), and veggies. We drink lots of water.

The important part is to listen to your body react to your diet. This can be done in a few ways. Notice what is good for your body by eating after a workout. For example, lots of water feels good. I tried lots of Gatorade after a long run, but my body didn't feel good. However, my body feels good when I drink lots of Gatorade after hoops or the weight room. It's strange, but I've learned. Another is that I stopped eating pork because of running a lot. I could feel the pork in my stomach and smell it in my skin after running. That was a sign to stop eating pork. If I don't eat eggs or some kind of bread in the morning, then my energy is low for the entire day. In addition, I need to drink at least two glasses of water to feel great starting the day.

May the Spirit of God energize you on your journey of good dieting and health. God bless you, fam.

P.S. Biblically speaking, many take these verses out of context when talking about having a healthy diet: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (the body is a temple for God). However, the biblical drives for our diet come from various various verses with admonishment of what not to eat (like blood and mold), grateful for guest meals, and what drinks and foods should be eaten in moderation (like wine and meats). I often go further in my belief with understanding that originally mankind was to eat every green plant for food and that by God was called good (in Genesis 1:29-30). Eventually, I hope to go vegan. :)