God Heals in Many Ways - 2013

For some time now, probably our entire marriage of 22 years, I've been praying for my husband to come along side me with diet and exercise. I've had issues with being overweight since I was born a 10 lb. 8 oz. baby (Can you believe I was adopted? And it was natural childbirth?). I've had a life of Yo-Yo dieting except that I've never really understood how I could be extremely active and still carry so much extra weight. I dreamed of a day when I’d have someone to do it all with. Especially once we were in the same home. 

Since our son left home it has gotten much better about just not keeping the junk around as much. We've kept healthier food in the house for a good 7 years now and I managed to lose 80 pounds without even really dieting, just eating what I’d thought was healthy food. But I've only been able to get minimal exercise, partly due to not being able to do certain exercise alone (for safety reasons), lack of motivation, or just plain stubbornness (I’ll admit it). So naturally I thought that if someone else would do it with me that it’d be much less of a feat! I also had no idea that I needed to continue to change my diet even more and what an impact it would make on me.

Last year my husband ended up being hospitalized twice in February. One time it was for his heart which seemed to make him sit up and take notice. (He has been more than 100 pounds overweight for quite some time now. I will admit to the fact that I’m sure part of his problem was also the fact that I spent so much time sick and unable to help to motivate him. Also he is into computers and office related work which can be the most sedentary.) All of a sudden, a few months after this he started reading. And before long he started reading to me about this Wheat Belly Diet: (http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-Lose-Weight-Health/dp/1609611543/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362752253&sr=1-1&keywords=the+wheat+belly+diet - now 1470 reviews). Then we decided to get the book and we started reading it. I read it some but he became so convinced that he even read it to me. So, by just about 4 months after his last hospitalization we started on this diet.

It took us about a month to prepare since we had to clean all of the wheat products out of the house. Think it sounds hard or even impossible? Well, we just passed our 9 month mark, totally without wheat! Well, I actually think I may have slipped, just one time because I just didn't ask at a restaurant and became ill for a good 4 hours so I felt that I didn't even have to ask after that. 

My husband has lost a good 20 pounds since, just by not eating the wheat. The one tremendously good thing that does also happen is that when not eating the wheat we found that to get filled up that we ended up finding so many natural, whole foods to eat. We are now mostly filling up with fresh vegetables, learning more new recipes, reading food labels (and being shocked by so much food that contains wheat seemingly unnecessarily) and finding out about more fresh veggies at local open air markets. This diet calls for more nuts, berries, and etc… which we have incorporated into our diet some but not fully yet as we are learning about more healthy foods. This diet does take a little research but no more work than Weight Watchers, etc… and this diet is how we are eating for life, not just for a few months before adding wheat back in. YUCK! We both are living wheat free for good. 

If you will recall, last year I had a horrendous fall. We started this diet the day after I fell. I was quite physically slowed down during this time and some since. I've still been in recovery this entire past 9+ months. And I didn't gain even an ounce. I went to my doctor 6 months after the fall and going off of the wheat and I weighed exactly the same as prior to the fall and going off the wheat. I have now been given better reports at the office visits of all 3 of my doctors. Even my lab work is the best it’s been since the early 90’s and my cholesterol is better than it has even been. Hallelujah! But this diet has given me so many advantages and even in the last couple of months I have experienced so much more.

After a couple of months going through some of the most awful pain in my life with the dislocated shoulder (broken arm & torn rotator cuff too) I started to realize that I had little pain anywhere else in my body. The left hand that I had struggled with arthritis in to the point of wearing a brace several times was fine. My back…OH MY BACK…17 years of chronic back pain since surgery and it was almost totally gone. It wasn't until a few months later that I was able to quit wearing the sling (wore for 5+ months) that I noticed that I had almost no neck pain. More recently due to finally having some cooler weather in Florida, I've noticed no more arthritis pain. Oh, a tiny bit here and there for maybe one day a month or a little pain from getting stiff sitting here typing for too long (longer than I’m supposed to) but NO PAIN in the mornings. When it’d get down into the 40’s or even 50’s I’d awake and be in an actual stupor for nearly the entire morning from so much pain. I didn't go a day for several years without taking Ibuprophen every morning to help loosen up my joints and get me moving. I’m taking none or just the occasional acetaminophen now. Ibuprophen is down to maybe one dose per week or even less. God surely knew what He was doing!

I’d been told a couple of years ago that I should try getting a trike because it was unsafe due to balance issues to try to learn to ride a bike again by myself. In this midst of all of this I finally gave in and shared with some friends (angels) that I was ready to start looking for a trike. (And, this is how God works when we FINALLY decide to give things to Him!) Within 5 days I had a brand new trike! 

About a month ago I was early to church one Sunday and was caught about 2/3 of the sanctuary away from my seat when the service was starting. After jogging back to my seat I thought “What’s up with me?” and I realized that I felt so much better than I had for such a long time, literally years (more than a decade). And I've felt better ever since. Oh, I have my days like everyone else but I am improving in leaps and bounds.I, like most people, wait, expecting God to heal me in certain ways that I THINK He should but His ways are different from my ways. He uses so many different ways to heal or even for me to notice that He has healed! I pray that I no longer expect Him to work like I think He should! Two of the most helpful scriptures (why they are amongst the blog title) that I believe encompass the entire Christian walk are Proverbs 3:5,6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”.

Another scripture that I always try to remember and also cite to others very often is: *1 Corinthians 3:19a “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” And, this next one is just too good to not note along with this: *  1 Corinthians 1:25 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 

I must also add that my husband just recently purchased a bike as a late birthday present. He is also looking to get healthier as I am. We are planning picnics and ecstatic about what God has ahead for us in this life and becoming healthier together.

Just keep on praying and praying and praying! He IS always answering!

MY TRIKE - Purple, of course!
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