365 DAYS TO A HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE.
(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
Dear friends; Have you made the 1 Corinthians 6:19 commitment?
Have you become increasingly aware of
the fact that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives within you, whom you
have received from God?
Do you realize that you are not your own now?
Are you eager, ready and willing to get started on a newer,
healthier lifestyle?
If you have never thought this way before, it can be a bit
overwhelming. You might find yourself
wondering exactly where to start. Just
begin to think of this physical journey that we have decided to take as being
very similar to a spiritual journey. What
do you do when you want to clean up your life spiritually? Most people start by looking inward and
examining themselves. They begin to consider
all of the wrong “stuff” they have let creep into their spirit.
Your physical body basically needs the same type of
attention as your soul. Sometimes you
have to clean everything up from the inside out. You remove the bad and toxic things that do
not belong there, and then you get ready to turn a page with some new good
habits for a fresh new start. You begin to replace the bad with the good.
How on earth would you actually go about doing this with your physical body?
You begin the process with a complete body detox.
Just like your soul, your body can get full of all the wrong things. Those things can do horrible damage to your health. You might begin to feel sluggish. You could become overweight. You might experience some skin problems, some headaches or any other type of ache or pain; or you might even have some digestive issues. These are all sure signs that it is time to cleanse your body. It is time to detox!
Just like your soul, your body can get full of all the wrong things. Those things can do horrible damage to your health. You might begin to feel sluggish. You could become overweight. You might experience some skin problems, some headaches or any other type of ache or pain; or you might even have some digestive issues. These are all sure signs that it is time to cleanse your body. It is time to detox!
Just as you empty your life of sin and begin to fill your heart with the love of Jesus in order to
cleanse and heal your soul from the inside out; detoxification of your physical
body begins with a similar process of removing the unhealthy toxins and replacing them with the proper nutrients your body needs in order to grow and replenish your cells. You start on the inside, and it takes a while for the progress to begin to show and work its way to the outside. As you give your body the proper rest, while cleaning and nourishing your body from the inside, you will eventually begin to remove and eliminate any bad toxins
and replace them with more healthy nutrients.
When God forgives our sins he covers them, or blots them
out of his book, by the atoning blood of Jesus.
The bad stuff is eliminated. It goes away never to be remembered again; and something new and wonderful happens as God begins to replace our unhealthy sin nature with the perfect healthy blood of Jesus. Just as Jesus is the answer for cleansing the
spiritual blood of the body of Christ, there is also a way provided naturally by God for a physical cleansing of the blood flowing through our bodies. This process is not hard or complicated, and it doesn’t
involve a lot of medical visits to a doctor’s office or a lot of pills from a pharmacy. This detoxification process is basically free and easy to do; but you have to decide
you want to do it.
Why wouldn’t anyone want to do something that would be
helpful to their own personal well being?
I don’t know; but I guess just as in the spiritual life, the answers are different for everyone. Just as people neglect to do their spiritual house-cleaning; they also often neglect
to cleanse their physical temples.
Leviticus 17:11 tells us that “the life of a creature is in
the blood.” Just as the cleansing and
inner healing process transpires in our souls when the precious blood of Jesus is applied in our lives; so too begins a physical process where we must cleanse and heal our physical blood in order to keep healthy things happening inside of our bodies. This is done by detoxification. Some of us have treated our bodies like garbage dumps by allowing many harmful substances to abide inside of our bodies. When we remove the impurities from the blood that is found in the area of the liver where the toxins of our bodies go to be processed for elimination, we clean the blood in that area. Toxins can also be eliminated from the kidneys, intestines, lungs, lymph and skin. If any of these systems are compromised and the toxins are not eliminated properly, it usually results in bad health. This could be comparable to the un-confessed sin building up in our spiritual lives. Both situations are very unhealthy and produce bad results.
inner healing process transpires in our souls when the precious blood of Jesus is applied in our lives; so too begins a physical process where we must cleanse and heal our physical blood in order to keep healthy things happening inside of our bodies. This is done by detoxification. Some of us have treated our bodies like garbage dumps by allowing many harmful substances to abide inside of our bodies. When we remove the impurities from the blood that is found in the area of the liver where the toxins of our bodies go to be processed for elimination, we clean the blood in that area. Toxins can also be eliminated from the kidneys, intestines, lungs, lymph and skin. If any of these systems are compromised and the toxins are not eliminated properly, it usually results in bad health. This could be comparable to the un-confessed sin building up in our spiritual lives. Both situations are very unhealthy and produce bad results.
The body’s natural cleansing processes are activated in
several ways. We can bring healing into
the situation by resting the often overworked organs of our bodies through the process of
fasting for a certain set aside period of time. When we do not eat our digestive system gets to rest. I highly recommend fasting at least one day a
week. It is a good way to rid your body
of those unhealthy toxins that have built up over time. Whether you are doing a
spiritual fast or a physical fast or both, the results will always be beneficial. If you are diabetic, suffer from a terminal
or chronic disease, or pregnant; be sure to consult with your doctor before
beginning a fast. Otherwise, this seems to be a God approved way for detoxification of the body.
We let our bodies rest and restore by fasting, and we also let our cells be rested and refreshed when we get a good night's sleep. If you have been neglecting your sleep, your body may not be ridding itself of the toxins that can build up over time, because when you lose sleep, your cells lose their resting times and are less likely to stay healthy. Be sure to get 8 hours of sleep each night.
We let our bodies rest and restore by fasting, and we also let our cells be rested and refreshed when we get a good night's sleep. If you have been neglecting your sleep, your body may not be ridding itself of the toxins that can build up over time, because when you lose sleep, your cells lose their resting times and are less likely to stay healthy. Be sure to get 8 hours of sleep each night.
We can also help detoxification to take place by
stimulating the liver, intestines, kidneys and skin through the increased blood circulation that comes by exercise. If you are wanting to detox, try to get in at least one hour of exercise every day. Walk outside in the sunshine and increase your vitamin intake from the natural sun light. A few times a week exercise hard enough and in such a way that makes your skin perspire. That is your body’s natural way of eliminating toxic waste. After you have exercised, go sit in a hot sauna and sweat some more. It is good to open up the pores of the skin and let your skin breathe and rid itself of what doesn’t need to be there. When you shower let the hot water run over you as hot as you can stand it for five minutes, then spend 30 seconds under solid cold water. Do this three times in a row, then dry off and climb into bed and cover up; this helps your skin to detox as you rest.
We can also detox by refueling the body with healthy nutrients instead of toxins. All of these things help our bodies to achieve a healthier state of detoxification..
As you go through your day, stop every now and then and take deep long breathes of air and exhale slowly. This helps to detoxify your lungs.
We can also detox by refueling the body with healthy nutrients instead of toxins. All of these things help our bodies to achieve a healthier state of detoxification..
Sometimes detoxification is the only way to address the
needs of our body’s tiny little individual cells that are constantly changing
and evolving according to what is happening and going on inside of us. Just like God’s Holy Days that come around
year after year and remind us to cleanse our souls; rest our souls; and
rejuvenate our spirits; detoxing the physical body should also happen on a regular (at
least yearly) basis. It is a good
check, whenever you hit certain days that remind you to purify your spiritual
life; that you also give the same special attention to the purification of your
physical body. Both processes work
together, and they both need to be tended to on a regular basis.
If you have a serious or chronic disease, or if you are a
nursing mother, you should be consulting your physician before you decide to do
a body detox on your own. Also keep in
mind that detoxification for a child should be done only under a doctor’s care. A child’s body is going through many
different processes and a child’s needs are different than an adult’s needs. However, If you are physically healthy, but
just not feeling 100%; you should be okay to try any of these safe, natural
body detox techniques that I mention in this article.
Keep in mind, however, that I am simply a normal untrained
person trying to maintain good health.
Anything that I tell you is based purely on my own personal experiences;
and your body may be different and respond different than mine. I am not a doctor, and do not
claim to be a health expert; though I have done a lot of research on health for my own purposes. Understand that I only offer these
suggestions as a friend, not as a medical professional. If you want to err on the side of caution, even
if you are totally healthy; it wouldn’t hurt to run the things you are doing by
your doctor to get his input; then if your doctor feels it is safe, make your
decision to continue.
Years ago, this discussion about the health benefits of
detoxing the body would never have taken place. It just simply would not have been necessary. Why is that? It is because; today we are living in a
totally different world than those who lived just 10 or 15 years ago. We are dealing with so many new health
issues. We now have to consider the possibility of foods being contaminated with GMO’s. We have to deal with the effects of air pollution. We must be noticing that there are hidden chemicals and pesticides in our processed foods and our household
products. Even going to a doctor can sometimes be problematic as we are living in a world full of people misusing prescribed drugs, both the patients
and the doctors prescribing them can make terrible mistakes. This
is because the big pharmaceutical companies have come to be huge money makers and they often go to unethical lengths to keep their profits. Also there are large and well established charities that started out righteously enough,fighting to cure diseases. They were at one time very helpful organizations and they gained the trust of everyone. Many of them, having existed for years now, seem to have more employees making huge salaries for raising funds than doing research and finding cures. The diseases have provided a constant flow of monetary funds for their cause and some of them do not even want to find a cure now because it threatens the security of their huge organizations and their livelihood. We are living and trying to stay healthy in a very messed-up, upside down world.
We have learned that a good way to start combating the unhealthy environment is by lightening up the
toxins that we all are putting into your body every day. Many of these toxins would be coming from alcohol,
coffee, cigarettes, refined sugars, starchy foods and saturated fats. If you are going to do a complete body detox, you need to leave these things off for the duration. The one exception might be coffee, but only have half a cup a day instead of the usual overload that most people tend to consume and make sure you buy good organic coffee that is free of chemicals and pesticides.
In thinking of your skin and your lungs; it is healthier to change
out any household and beauty products that we are currently purchasing and
learn to use more all-natural chemical-free substitutes. This would include soaps, shampoos, tooth
paste, deodorants and any chemical-based household cleansers. Most people are simply not aware of how many
chemicals, poisons and toxins are contained in these manufactured products. Many of them actually cause cancer and other diseases. There are natural alternatives to all of
these products, so you do not have to eliminate them, just change to something better.. You can still be clean, smell
good, and have nice hair and sweet breath with the more natural substitutes. Your house can still shine and sparkle like
new, probably even better than before; but you simply must quit using all the
products that give you cancer, arthritis, dementia and allergies! It is very easy to do a google search that
will give you plenty of do-it-yourself recipes for mixing and making safe, natural alternative
products. You will probably want to add
washing powder and fabric softeners to that list also. You can easily mix or
make these from your home using safe, natural ingredients that work just as
well or better than the others you are buying at the store. Getting
these products out of your home will help to detox your skin and lungs. Also adding some healthy green house plants into your decor will help the oxygen flow and keep more clean air inside your home. Not only will you be detoxing your body – you will also be
saving a lot of money that you have been spending at the store on expensive products that contain unsafe chemicals.
Put all of that money you save away, because you might need
it for the next thing you need to do to get good detoxification results for you
health. You need to rid your life of
stress. Stress is on top of the list of
causes for death these days. Vacations
are good! Learn to take them as often as
possible. A change of pace is great for
distressing your life. Large amounts of stress hormones build up in
your body and create toxins. These
hormones interact with your liver to cause you problems. So, do a close examination your life. Think about all that you do daily. What is causing you stress and how can you
eliminate those particular items? Try
creating positive emotional responses to the things that you cannot
eliminate. Find a way to make those
unpleasant experiences more positive so that you do not dread them. Try to turn something around in such a way that your reaction
is not stressful. Try reading,
exercising, meditating, gardening, allowing more time for a favorite hobby. Perhaps you might use journalism, painting, sculpture, singing or
dancing to counteract the stressful hours of your day. Try to get the stressful things over early
and relax into the more enjoyable things by the end of your day so that you always go to bed happy. Eliminate the stress that you can, and learn
to control and weaken down the rest.
I would recommend that you start slowly with all of these
things I am sharing for the detoxification of your body. Do the first suggestion for seven days,
notice how it affects your body, then move on adding the second suggestion for
seven more days. Notice how that second
item affected your body and energy level.
Next, start the third thing and just keep on going until you have
incorporated all the suggestions together into your daily routines. By the time you have reached the last item on
the list you will know what has affected you the most. That may be your weakness; the thing you
should monitor in your lifestyle in order to prevent more problems in
the future. Many people notice that
several things are affecting them, and not just one or two items. Again, awareness is key.
When you have followed these suggestions for several weeks,
add seven days into the plan in which you do not drink anything but water. Get used to that, and try to drink mostly
water from now on. Most other drinks
contain too much alcohol, too much sugar, too many chemicals, or too many
calories. Water is safe, yet even the
wrong water has its problems. Do the
best you can with what you have to work with. Get the cleanest most chemical-free water that
you can find and only drink it from here on out. You can get strips at the drug store to test
the chemical and bacteria levels of your water.
Use filters on all of your drinking water in your house. Make sure you are drinking the healthiest brand
of bottled water when you are away from a filter.
After you have had seven days of everything I’ve mentioned
so far, you will need to begin to change your diet. Eliminate the foods in your diet that are not
fruits and vegetables. If you do this for
a few weeks it will help to detox your digestive system and eliminate any
digestive problems that you might be facing.
Eat lots of fiber (fresh fruits are good for this) and try to drink
about two quarts of fresh clean water every day. This will cleanse your body of all the bad
stuff and provide the much needed nutrients which give your cells the
essentials for good health.
Be especially attentive to including plenty of apples,
asparagus, avocados, artichokes, cabbage, broccoli, kale, spinach and bananas and
berries in your diet. After you have
eaten just fruits and vegetables for at least seven days, be sure to add some
good spices to your cooking. Read about
the healing qualities found in spices.
You will be amazed! Slowly begin
to add some protein back into your diet by adding some lean meats that are
grass fed (or naturally and not chemically fed) such as lean beef, chicken and
fish once a week. Make sure the fish is
grown in wild waters and that they are not imported from China where they have been grown in filthy conditions and fed bad foods. DO NOT EAT FRIED FOODS. Either bake, sautee or boil all meats. It is easy to do this by making every other
day a day for all vegetable and fruit meals and every other day a day for one
type of meat, such as chicken one day, lean beef another day and fish another
day; with the fruit and vegetable days in between each meat day. Try to incorporate liver into your meat eating at least once a month. It is full of the nutrients your body needs to be replenished. You can put your meats into a salad or mix
them with other foods, it is not important to eat a large portion of meat each
time, just be sure to get SOME protein.
If you do not wish to eat meat, substitute with beans and legumes. Notice how this affects your body and which
foods make you feel better and which foods make you feel worse. Consume the ones that make you feel great
more often. Also, have eggs a few
times a week. Use dairy, but go easy on
it. Try to buy things that are naturally
processed. Eggs DO NOT raise your
cholesterol as previously suspected, and in fact eggs can add to your health
benefits when used wisely. Mix a little spinach or kale with your eggs, the combination will taste delicious and you will get extra nutrients.
It is fine also, to eat naturally processed butter. Unlike what we have been told in the past,
butter is actually good for you and will not clog your arteries.
It is just as important to leave out the bad food sources as
it is to put in the good nutrients. No
sugar. No starches. No bread products. Leave out the biscuits and toast. Leave out the pasta except on special occasions. No rice.
No potatoes. No fried foods. No
margarine and no liquid fats. No sugary soft drinks, especially diet drinks. Diet soda is worse for you than drinking the real sugary soda. If you
MUST fry in oil use pure extra virgin olive oil. Never use any other cooking oil. It is okay to use coconut oil though, and it
actually is very tasty and has great nutrients. Do not buy anymore pre-packaged foods. Learn to make your own sauces from all natural ingredients in your kitchen. NEVER eat Hines ketchup, it is full of toxins and sugar. Make your own condiments and be aware of what is in each one. If you need good healthy recipes; google!
Use plentiful amounts of spices in your recipes as they
all have great healing factors built right in.
Spice things up with turmeric, garlic, onions, curry, cinnamon, ginger
and black pepper. These all have great
healing properties and help your body to detox. Use lots of lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. Notice how you feel after you use certain spices and flavorings. Realize the effect they have on your body and
pick and chose the ones that seem to help you the most. . Don’t be afraid to use them in abundance for
adding variety and taste to your food sources.
At this point it would also be good to add green tea to you
daily routine. Drink it hot in the
mornings and flavor it with local unprocessed honey. Unprocessed local honey is one of the best
things you can add to your diet. It
contains many healing qualities and is wonderful for the digestive tract. Add a spoonful of fresh lemon juice and a
spoonful of apple cider vinegar along with a spoonful of honey to your green
tea. Make sure the tea is organic,
otherwise it might contain unhealthy chemicals that would interfere with your
detoxification process.
Further cleanse your liver by adding sprinkles of ground
dandelion root, burdock and milk thistle to your food and drinks.
Find a good vitamin C tablet and take it daily.
This may sound like too many suggestions to take in at
once. Go back to my original suggestion
and just add one thing at a time until you have incorporated them all. Give it all time to work. In a few months your body will start to tell
you how much better it feels! If you can
stay with these routines all the time, it is good for you. If you can’t keep it up all the time, at
least practice these detoxification routines for a few months each year in
order to detoxify your body and get refreshed.
So my dear friends, in closing this message on
detoxification of the physical body, let us all begin to ask ourselves the
right questions. Have we devoted
ourselves as holy temples to God through The Holy Spirit? Are we habitations of God by the Spirit? Are
we spiritually-minded and physically ready to bring forth the fruits of the
Spirit of God?
Let us take heed not to grieve the holy Comforter. Let us desire his gracious presence and the influences upon our hearts as He resides within our physical bodies. Let us seek to live out our days with wisdom and to carry out the duties allotted to us, to the glory of God.
Let us take heed not to grieve the holy Comforter. Let us desire his gracious presence and the influences upon our hearts as He resides within our physical bodies. Let us seek to live out our days with wisdom and to carry out the duties allotted to us, to the glory of God.