So, a little over a year ago I posted about the difference between healthy eating and not eating healthy as far as healing the body from trauma. This year, I had a reminder of just what healthy eating does for the body, and for the connection with the Spirit.
Anyone who knows me will tell you, I am exceptionally busy. That is often why it may take me some time to get a new post written and posted. Over the last month or so, it has been more extreme than normal. I wasn’t able to more than basic, simple shopping runs to get only the items we were about to run out of, and I was doing those on my way home from work when the stores were about to close. Not a great situation for someone who usually makes a gallon of homemade vegetable juice every week, and who makes homemade kraut regularly as well.
As you can imagine, doing a sudden drop from extremely healthy eating to having virtually no healthy food available is nothing short of a shock to the body and immune system. And, yes, I paid an extreme price for not having the healthy intake I was so used to. I’m one of those people who doesn’t ever get the flu shot, and I rarely get sick. If I do get sick, it gets really bad, and it does it quick. This time was no exception. After about three weeks of not juicing, it finally hit. I went through nearly two weeks of body aches, stiffness, severe congestion, dizziness and nausea on a nearly continual basis. The first couple of days were the worst. After that I was at least able to return to work, but it still took another week before the infection broke. And I am convinced that the reason it broke that day is that is the exact day that I returned to my juicing.
When I was a kid, I saw people who I thought were “crazy” for being so picky about what and how they ate. I grew up in a house where we had balanced meals, lots of fruit and vegetables, and rarely had sugar of any type (little did I know how much was in the regular food my mother put on the table). I never could have conceived that I would go to the extreme lengths to stay healthy that I do today. Today I do joke with the people I meet, and those I work with about being one of those “health nuts,” but I am also completely serious about it. What I am in the process of recovering from is just one more example of why I eat the way I do, and why it is so important to me to do so.
To me, eating and living healthy isn’t just about being physically well. It’s also about maintaining my connection with the Spirit as well. My physical well-being is also indicative of my mental and emotional well-being as well. If I’m not ok in the body, I am not ok with the Spirit either, and as a minister I have to be ok with the Spirit, or I am not capable of helping others. And that’s what ministry is truly about: being of service and helping others. That alone is worth being a “health nut” for .
The Warriors Den 